ENDANGERED ANIMALS (EL LOBO MEXICANO EN INGLES)

The Mexican Wolf

The problem

Mexican wolves are now endangered throughout its former range due to eradication programs were implemented since the early twentieth century in the United States and from the 1950s in Mexico. As trace evidence, hair, feces and even calves seem to be biting wolf suggest the presence of some small groups of these canines in the wild in some northern states of Mexico. It is difficult to know for sure what the current status of these populations, and that wolves are a threat to the farmers who have possibly removed when attacked livestock, without reporting it to the authorities.

The species

The Mexican wolf taxonomy is:Kingdom Animalia (all animals)Phylum Chordata (chordates animals)Subphylum Vertebrata (animals with a backbone of bone or cartilage)Class Mammalia (mammals)Order Carnivora (carnivores)Family Canidae (dog family)Genus CanisSpecies lupusSubspecies baileyi

There are 35 species of canids (ie animals of the Family Canidae) in the world, of which wolves, coyotes and foxes four species (arctic fox, red fox, gray fox and desert fox) are in North America.
Gray wolves are social animals that usually form groups of 2-10 individuals with kinship together. It is believed that before control programs Mexican wolves groups had a similar pattern. Currently, in the wild, wolves are pairs or groups of three to five individuals consisting of an adult pair and their offspring.

Females come into heat once a year and gestation lasts between 60 and 63 days. The Litter sizes vary from 4-7 pups per female, although they have counted up to 11 young in childbirth.The main food of the gray wolves are ungulates (deer, caribou, elk), while Mexican wolves feed primarily on white-tailed deer and mule deer, but also consume boar, antelope, bighorn sheep, rabbits and rodents. Studies of other gray wolf subspecies found also feed on carrion.

Distribution and habitat

 

The original distribution of the Mexican wolf covered the mountain regions of the states of central and northern Mexico to southern Arizona and New Mexico and west Texas in the United States. They are found in a wide range of habitats, although it is considered that they preferred the temperate forests of pines, this oak and oak.

Condition

The Mexican wolf is listed as extinct in the NOM-059-ECOL-2001 published by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

Although there are no reports of viable populations in the wild, specialists in wildlife management consider that there are small groups or pairs of these animals scattered in the mountain regions of northern Mexico. In 2000 it reported about 200 Mexican wolves in captivity, 48 in Mexico and 155 in the United States, which are the product of an international program for the recovery of the species, it faced a controversial situation for release in the historic habitat.

Pressures and threats

Currently, the main threats faced by Mexican wolves are their clandestine extermination because the risks to livestock, reduced their food (deer) and the loss and degradation of habitat.

With support from WWF

 

Currently, the Chihuahuan Desert Program of WWF supports a project to study the genetic diversity of Mexican gray wolf populations existing in Mexico, in order to achieve a genetic and reproductive management that allows the conservation of this species

Appearance:

reaching a length of not more than 135 cm and a height of 80 cm. Weight ranges from 27 kg to 45 kg.

Skills

 

 
is an extremely adaptable to the various ecosystems that exist in our country