7.Six wild born pups found recently in a den in Arizona outside of the Blue Range Mexican Wolf Recovery Area have been humanely euthanized, announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wolf biologists determined they were not pure bred Mexican wolves based upon a gross physical feature examination.
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7.The Services National Forensics Laboratory will conduct a genetic analysis on blood samples taken to determine if the pups were hybrids or feral dogs.
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7."These are not pure wolves," said John Morgart, Coordinator of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. "The blood samples will tell us if they were a feral dog or hybrid litter. They may be the offspring of a lone female Mexican wolf that has located in the general area. We released a lone female in Arizona last winter. We tracked this female very close in hopes she would find a male wolf to mate with, but that did not happen."
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7.In keeping with the Services Final Rule for managing the Mexican wolf reintroduction and recovery program, the animals have been humanely euthanized. Section (3) (x) of the rules for the reintroduction of Mexican wolves into the Blue Range of Arizona and New Mexico (50 CFR section 17.84(k)) states:
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0 "As determined by the Service to be appropriate, the Service or any agent so authorized by the Service, may capture, kill, subject to genetic testing, place in captivity, euthanize, or return to the wild (if found to be a pure Mexican wolf) any feral wolf-like animal, feral wolf hybrid, or feral dog found within the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area that shows physical or behavioral evidence of hybridization with other canids, such as domestic dogs or coyotes; being an animal raised in captivity, other than as part of a Service-approved wolf recovery program; or being socialized or habituated to humans."
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. Visit the Services website at http://www.fws.gov.
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