Border wall blocked endangered wolf pacing for 5 days as it tried to cross, experts say
A Mexican gray wolf known as Mr. Goodbar wandered for five days in the desert — only to be blocked by a border wall in New Mexico — the first documented instance where two endangered wolf populations were separated by the man-made barrier, a conservation group said.
The wolf was born at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas and released in 2020 into the wild in Arizona, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity. He wears a GPS collar that periodically sends data about his location to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Border Report.
Mr. Goodbar was making his trek through the desert in late November, looking for a new home and a new mate and trying to cross the border into Mexico. But instead, he spent Nov. 23 to Nov. 27 pacing along 23 miles of the New Mexican border, where the border wall prevents wildlife from heading south, the Center for Biological Diversity said.
“Mr. Goodbar’s Thanksgiving was forlorn, since he was thwarted in romancing a female and hunting together for deer and jackrabbits,” Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the center, said in the release. “But beyond one animal’s frustrations, the wall separates wolves in the Southwest from those in Mexico and exacerbates inbreeding in both populations.”
Mr. Goodbar eventually turned away from the border and was located by researchers farther north, near the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico, the release said.
Environmentalists and immigration advocates have long raised concerns that border walls are disruptive to local ecosystems. In September, advocates criticized the construction of levees along the southern border that they said essentially functioned as walls and disrupted local fauna, McClatchy News reported.
And in April, biologist Myles Traphagen told The Arizona Republic that watching the border wall expand was like “watching a slow death” as the fencing encroached on wilderness areas and kept animals from migrating freely across the border.
Gray wolves as a species were first threatened early in the 20th century. The wolves, which “turned to domestic livestock for food” and were a perceived threat to humans in general, led to the species being nearly eradicated by humans, according to the Endangered Species Coalition.
The wolves were recognized as an endangered species in 1976, and 11 wolves that were bred in captivity were released in Arizona and New Mexico in 1998 in an attempt to begin repopulating the species, the organization said.
Genetic diversity in Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. is low, and connectivity between the U.S. population and the Mexican population is essential for the species’ survival. There are only about 200 of the wolves in the US and 40 in Mexico, The El Paso Times reported.
“This was all unbroken habitat until three years ago,” Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The El Paso Times, referring to the stretch of land Mr. Goodbar had traveled. “There is a desperate need to increase diversity in the U.S. population ... A wall has proved to be an impediment.”
The gray wolf isn’t the only species inhibited by the border wall — other animals that need the freedom to roam in the Chihuahuan desert include kit foxes and ringtails, the release from the Center for Biological Diversity said.
Critics have taken fight over Idaho wolf laws to courts. How many lawsuits are there?
Environmentalists: Army Corps was wrong to authorize Robeson County gas pipelines
Lawyers for the state try to end lawsuit over Florida’s role in Piney Point pollution
