New Mexico Wild joined 34 other conservation organizations representing over two million members in calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop removing Mexican gray wolves that cross Interstate 40. The coalition letter focuses on “Taylor,” an adult male wolf who has repeatedly returned to the Mount Taylor area west of Albuquerque despite being captured and relocated over 150 miles south.
The letter argues that the Service’s practice of removing wolves based solely on an arbitrary Interstate 40 boundary actively hinders recovery of this endangered subspecies. As the Mexican wolf population has grown, dispersal events north of Interstate 40 have accelerated, with four of five documented crossings occurring in the last three years.
“Please let Taylor stay where he is and allow him to move as he sees fit,” the organizations write, emphasizing that natural wolf movement is essential for genetic diversity and true recovery of North America’s rarest wolf subspecies.
