Editor,
In September 1920, the UNM football team and the paper you are reading adopted the Mexican gray wolf as their mascot.
"The Lobo," it was said, "is respected for his cunning, feared for his prowess, and is the leader of the pack."
Despite this accolade, it was a terrible year for New Mexico's wolves, with 67 slaughtered in the U.S. Biological Survey's predator extermination program. The agency - later renamed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - continued its policy of eradicating wolves until the mid-1970s, when populations held on only in remote Mexico.
Since the disappearance of wolves in New Mexico, UNM's mascot has become increasingly garish and cartoony. This is not a coincidence; rather, it symbolizes our increasing disconnection with nature. It's hard to blame the students for this disconnection, since there were simply no wild wolves to be seen within the state for more than two decades.
For the last several years, however, students, faculty and all New Mexicans have been denied the chance to view wolves in their natural American habitat. The Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Project, started in 1998, has released wolves across an area centralized in eastern Arizona and spanning all across southern New Mexico. The wolves are descended from just seven adults captured from Mexico - the subspecies has come heart-stoppingly close to total disappearance.
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The recovery program has been severely weakened by misguided management and public apathy and has fallen short of its original goals. The mandated killing of wolves that have preyed upon livestock, coupled with natural mortality, are decimating the population faster than it can recover. Only 35 wolves could be accounted for in December 2005, compared with the projected total of 100. With the rate of mortality, this number is undoubtedly lower today, and the Mexican gray wolf remains on a slippery slope above extinction.
Though the Endangered Species Act of 1973 redefined the role of agencies like the Fish and Wildlife Service to one of wildlife recovery, the interests of livestock ranchers continue to carry the day. Many ranchers claim that predation of their animals by wolves hurts their livelihood, but actual figures show that the grievance is not valid.
According to data published by the Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Project, livestock deaths demonstrably caused by wolves total less than 1 percent of all stock raised within the recovery area. To further lessen financial strain on ranchers, the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife has repaid over $33,600 in livestock loss value. Nonetheless, wolves continue to be destroyed on behalf of cruel and unrealistic policy.
We at UNM must be willing to defend the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Project by contacting our representing agencies - the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the Albuquerque office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - to voice our support. There is a reason that our mascot is not a cow or sheep. The Mexican gray wolf, like all top predators, is a beautiful animal possessed of quiet dignity - the exact opposite of the glassy-eyed monstrosity at our basketball games.
The Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Project is a unique opportunity to help restore the real, wild New Mexico, but it will require action from all of us in order to succeed.
Phil Carter
UNM student
