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Enough habitat exists to support return of Mexican wolves in Southwest, study says

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Posted at 1:54 PM, Feb 11, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-11 15:54:18-05

PHOENIX — A U.S.-Mexico partnership could aid the long-term recovery of the endangered Mexican wolf, a subspecies of the North American gray wolf, and its eventual removal from the U.S. endangered species list, according to a new study.

In a peer-reviewed study published Jan. 21, researchers from several universities in Mexico, the University of Arizona and wildlife officials found that a suitable habitat exists in the southwestern U.S. and the Occidental and Oriental ranges of the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico where Mexican wolves can be restored to their “historical ecological role” in the wild.

The wolves, a subspecies of the endangered North American gray wolf, were nearly hunted to extinction in the early 1970s but now number nearly 200 animals in Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.