A new family of Mexican wolves, consisting of a father, mother, and two male pups, was transported from the United States to Mexico on March 25 for reintroduction into the wild in the municipality of Santa Catarina de Tepehuanes, Durango. This is part of a species recovery project led by Dr. Jorge Ignacio Servín Martínez, a researcher in the Department of Man and His Environment at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM).
This is the second relocation of wolves to Mexico this year. The first occurred on March 13, when four wolves arrived in the country to be released in the El Tarahumar and Bajíos del Tarahumar forest communities.
This group, like the previous one, will receive the same care, explained Dr. Servín Martínez, who is affiliated with the Xochimilco Unit. During their quarantine period, they are evaluated in terms of “the expression and reception of pair and group behaviors,” food sharing based on their social hierarchies, and other factors, to determine their collective dynamics and obtain relevant information about their probability of survival and continued existence in the wild.
The specimens are monitored using satellite collars to track their condition under the conditions of the release site, he explained.
Once incorporated into their natural environment, the conservation of the genus faces the challenge of ensuring its reproductive and social stability in the region; however, it is expected that within 15 years, a growing wild population will be established, capable of expanding to other regions of the central and southern Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango and to northern Chihuahua.
This “is the first time that work has been done on communal jungle lands; the participation and support of the local population has been of great importance,” said the researcher, because this type of land tenure covers a larger area compared to private ranches.
The Tarahumara and Bajíos del Tarahumara region encompasses more than 73,000 hectares, of which approximately 70 percent is forested land, plus the area of neighboring ejidos (communal landholdings).
This provides a suitable habitat for maintaining breeding groups of wolves and their wild prey, such as deer, peccaries, wild turkeys, hares, rabbits, and rodents. The recovery of the Mexican wolf is the result of a binational effort that began in the 1970s. Thanks to the support of the Tarahumara and Bajíos del Tarahumara Assembly, progress has been made in its reintroduction into some of the region’s ecosystems.
Source: boletines.uam
