Federal officials admit to accidentally killing wrong Mexican Gray Wolf in Greenlee County

Staff Reports

CLIFTON – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a memorandum admitting to mistakenly killing a collared, female Mexican gray wolf on April 14 while attempting to control the Bear Canyon pack in Greenlee County. 

According to a memorandum dated April 4, 2025 by Brady McGee, Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwest Region, the Bear Canyon pack – consisting of seven wolves with two wearing functioning radio collars and one wearing a non-functioning radio collar – was responsible for six probable wolf-caused depredation of cattle, and six injuries of livestock from March 2024 to March 2025. 

Other preventative measures were ineffective, including creating alternative food caches for the wolves and hazing. 

Therefore, McGee directed the Interagency Field Team to conduct a management action, including lethally controlling one uncollared male wolf from the Bear Canyon pack.

“Given the rate and proximity of the depredations, the FWS believes it is likely that Mexican wolves will continue to depredate on domestic animals in the near future without additional control measures,” McGee stated in his memorandum.  

While the Mexican gray wolf is endangered, the eradication was approved for this type of wolf since “the Bear Canyon Pack genes are still represented in the wild through siblings and the pack’s breeding adults” and that “the breeding female will soon den and whelp a new litter of pups, further increasing the size of this pack.”

However, instead of taking an uncollared male, the breeding female known as Asiza, wearing a nonfunctioning radio collar, was mistakenly killed. The Wildlife Service acknowledges the mistake.  

“During efforts to fulfill this removal order, AF1823 was mistakenly lethally removed on April 14, 2025,” a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memorandum stated. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined to close this removal order.”

The killing of the 7-year-old female wolf named by schoolchildren outraged advocacy groups, who have called for an investigation. 

“The killing of this breeding female is tragic news for the recovery of Mexican wolves,” said Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “While the agencies claim that killing this female was a mistake, they’re staying silent on the details as to how such an egregious error was made and how they’ll ensure mistakes like this won’t be repeated. We need to know why this killing occurred and how they’ll make sure it never happens again.”