The Fate Of Asha: The Mexican Gray Wolf Captured & Denied Freedom In The Wild

Photo by: USFWS

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has sadly determined that Asha, a young female Mexican gray wolf who ventured into northern New Mexico, will not be released back into the wild.

Having been captured near the Valles Caldera National Preserve in the Jemez Mountains in December 2023, Asha has been under the care of a facility near Socorro. Prior to the announcement by USFWS, there were hopes for Asha’s return back into the wild, pending her successful reproduction.

“Asha deserves to be free and wild. She has done nothing wrong — she has followed her instincts into suitable wolf habitat in northern New Mexico and is being punished for it,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Asha belongs in the wild whether she breeds or not; there are some pretty telling layers to this.”

“It’s achingly clear that Asha and her mate could contribute to wolf recovery if only the government would allow it,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Keeping them behind wire mesh for another year shows how politics are prioritized over wolf releases, as well as the livestock industry’s success at blocking wolves north of Interstate 40. Both have contributed to alarming declines in the genetic diversity of Mexican wolves since the early days of reintroduction.”

“We need to let lobos lead, respect their sentience, and learn from Asha and her family,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “The Caldera pack should be free to live their own lives and make their own choices. We should embrace the opportunity to make new scientific discoveries by allowing wolves to teach us, rather than continuing to disrupt and control their lives.”

The decision to keep Asha in captivity, instead of releasing her with her male partner, Arcadia, aligns with the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s longstanding resistance to releasing adult captive-born wolves. Since 2016, state and federal agencies have opted to release young pups separated from their parents, resulting in a high disappearance rate among these juveniles.

“Asha’s value to her species isn’t solely as a breeder — she’s an experienced wild wolf with important knowledge and traditions to share with other wolves,” said Regan Downey, director of education at the Wolf Conservation Center. “Depriving her of the wild is also depriving wild lobos of her keen instincts and is yet another setback on the path to true recovery.”

Asha is one of several wolves who have made headlines recently by repeatedly dispersing north of I-40. Anubis, a male lobo, made two journeys to the Flagstaff area in Arizona before being killed in January 2022. One of two wolves currently roaming north of I-40 in Arizona has been captured and collared in an attempt to capture the second wolf so they can be relocated.

Conservation groups say the arbitrary I-40 boundary, where wolves cannot go, is the result of state pressure to restrict the recovery of Mexican gray wolves to a limited portion of the Southwest. But leading scientists have said that three interconnected subpopulations of at least 200 wolves need to be present in the Southwest to achieve their recovery. The southern Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon ecoregion represent excellent opportunities for two new subpopulations, along with the existing population of roughly 260 lobos in the greater Gila bioregion.

“Her value does not depend on whether she can breed,” said Smith. “She is a wild wolf who has proven she can take care of herself in the wild, and should be allowed to do so.”