July 15, 2006
AZGFD News Release - New wolf pack roaming eastern Arizona
PINETOP, AZ - A new pack of Mexican Gray Wolves is now roaming eastern Arizona as part of the reintroduction of the endangered species in the region. Last week, wildlife biologists placed the family group of four gray wolves in a temporary holding pen to acclimate them to their new home range near Middle Mountain in the Apache National Forest. The group, called the Meridian pack, consists of an alpha male and female and two 12-week-old pups.
Click to hear what the wolves have to say.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officials report the pack chewed their way out of the nylon mesh, low-impact acclimation pen within five hours of being placed there on July 6. [This is what they are supposed to do-Ed.] Shawn Farry, the department's wolf project field team leader, says the animals are now free-ranging and appear to be doing well.
"With this release, we are attempting to augment the breeding wolf population now in the wild and also to maintain the genetic diversity of the current population," Farry adds. "The Meridian pack joins nine other packs now living in the wild in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in Arizona and New Mexico."
The release site, about 10 miles southwest of Alpine, AZ, has a signed, one-mile public closure surrounding it, ordered by the USDA Forest Service, to protect the wolves from disturbance. The closure will remain in effect while the wolves occupy the area.