Photo of Mexican Gray Wolf by Julia Olson, NM State
In a major victory for wolf recovery, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USWFS) today released an endangered Mexican gray wolf named Asha, along with her mate and pups, back into the wild.
WAN previously highlighted Asha’s story after she was captured and held in captivity for roaming north of Interstate 40 in New Mexico, not once, but twice, after crossing the arbitrary northern boundary of the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area.
Asha was released with her captive-born mate, Arcadia, and their five pups onto a conservation-managed, 244-square-mile ranch. The Service named the wolf family the Quartz Pack, though conservation groups had previously dubbed them the Caldera Pack in honor of Asha’s journeys to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
“Asha should never have been punished with a year and a half in captivity for merely wandering north of I-40, but we’re grateful to the agencies for doing the right thing now and setting this family free,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “May her puppies grow up in a world without arbitrary limits on their roaming, and we wish this young family all the best.”
As they mature and eventually breed, the Quartz Pack pups have the potential to contribute valuable genes to the wild population, which suffers from low genetic diversity.
The Quartz Pack was released six weeks after they were originally scheduled to be freed in June, and only after 8,000 citizens emailed and 36 conservation organizations wrote to the Service and the Department of the Interior in July, urging their immediate release.
The delayed release meant that the captive-born pups missed the best opportunity to become accustomed to their natural prey of elk, which Mexican wolves typically learn to hunt in June and early July when elk calves abound.
“The return of Asha to her ancestral home is worth celebrating — the wild has been waiting for her since 2023,” said Regan Downey, director of education and advocacy at the Wolf Conservation Center. “Imagine the excitement and curiosity coursing through the Quartz pack; for Asha, this is a wild homecoming, and for her family, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Run free, lobos!”
“Wolves deserve the freedom to roam wild and free, not be captured and held in captivity for over a year,” said Leslie Williams and Samantha Attwood, founding members of Team Wolf. “Asha’s return to the wild makes it clear that she should have been allowed to live and thrive in her natural environment all along.”
The Mexican gray wolf is one of the most endangered mammals in North America. With only 286 individuals remaining in the wild in the U.S., advocates stress that timely releases of genetically important wolves like Asha, along with her mate and pups, are vital to the survival and genetic diversity of the species.
