U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A Mexican wolf litter in 2016.

Biologists continue to release captive Mexican wolf pups into wild packs. The goal of the project is to increase wolf numbers and improve genetic diversity.

A dozen pups were placed into wolf dens in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico over a six-week period in April and May. Biologists hope the parents will adopt them into the pack and raise them. 

Michael Robinson is with the Center for Biological Diversity. He says the program was first implemented in 2016 and has not been effective. 

“The problem is that the genetic diversity is still declining in this population,” Robinson said.  

Robinson says almost every wolf in the population is related. So far this year, more than a dozen of the endangered animals have been killed in Arizona and New Mexico.