News Release

Rare Mexican Wolf Makes Surprise Visit to Valles Caldera

Mexican wolf "Asha" traveling around Valle Grande on December 3, 2023

Courtesy of Bryan Ramsay

News Release Date: December 28, 2023

Contact: Dave Krueger, 505-412-0826

Jemez Springs, NM – On the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Valles Caldera National Preserve is excited to mark this important milestone by celebrating a brief visit from an endangered Mexican wolf. The last documented Mexican wolf sighting in Valles Caldera was in 1932.

The female wolf, identified as F2754 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and known informally as “Asha,” traveled north across the State of New Mexico from the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area to the Jemez Mountains. Asha reached Valles Caldera on November 11, 2023. While she traveled around the Jemez Mountains, she continued to return to the park. On December 9, New Mexico Game and Fish officials captured her near Coyote, New Mexico, and returned her to the Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility. You can read more about her journey on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife news release here: Female Mexican Wolf Captured and Paired with Mate in Captivity | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov).

“We were thrilled to see the brief visit of a wolf to this landscape,” said Superintendent Jorge Silva-Bañuelos. “The park’s ecosystem used to be home to Mexican wolf. The elevation, abundant rainfall, mixed conifer forests, and deep, rich soils make the park an ideal place to support a great diversity of animals, including wolves. Today, the park and surrounding region has a couple thousand elk and healthy populations of mountain lions, bears, and coyotes.”

The ESA has been highly effective and credited with saving 99% of listed species from extinction. Thus far, more than 100 species of plants and animals have been delisted based on recovery or reclassified from endangered to threatened based on improved conservation status, and hundreds more species are stable or improving thanks to the collaborative actions of Tribes, federal agencies, state and local governments, conservation organizations and private citizens.

The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is considered a subspecies of gray wolf (Canis lupus). On average, Mexican wolves are smaller than northern gray wolves and larger than coyotes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Mexican wolf as endangered in 1976 and released the first wolves back into the wild in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in 1998.

Learn more at that park’s web page on Mexican wolves: https://www.nps.gov/vall/learn/nature/mexican-wolf.htm.

www.nps.gov/vall

Valles Caldera National Preserve | About 1.25 million years ago, a spectacular volcanic eruption created the 13-mile-wide circular depression now known as Valles Caldera. The preserve is known for its huge mountain meadows, abundant wildlife, and meandering streams. The area also preserves the homeland of ancestral native peoples and embraces a rich ranching history. Visit us at nps.gov/vall.

National Park Service | More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 420+ national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at nps.gov.