As wolves in the Northern Rockies have multiplied by the hundreds, it’s been a very different story for their southwestern cousins.

The endangered Mexican gray wolf — which was reintroduced in eastern Arizona in 1998 — now numbers an estimated 59. Fifty-two others have been removed over the years for preying on livestock or straying outside of established boundaries.

“They set it up in a way that’s essentially sabotaged the recovery,” said Michael Robinson, of the Center for Biological Diversity. “There are a series of rules that have been written for the Mexican wolf that have not been written in the Northern Rockies or anywhere else.”

About the size of a German shepherd, this wolf is the smallest, rarest and southernmost wolf species in the United States, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public whether the rules determining where the Mexican gray wolves live should be altered and the boundaries redrawn.

azdailysun.com