Once on the brink of extinction, the Mexican Gray Wolf has found new life in its ancestral home in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico.
"The recovery plan in Arizona, is that we meet an average of 320 Wolves over an eight year period," said Jim deVos, who manages the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Mexican Gray Wolf program.
The agency is charged with helping recover enough wolves to get them off the federal endangered species list.
RELATED: Watch part two of this investigative story online here
"There's a team of folks that are in the wild," deVos told ABC15. "They're jumping out of helicopters catching wolves, they're walking through two feet of snow to get to a wolf that's been darted. It's a hands-on program where people get to manage and work with wolves on a regular basis."
He said the program is having success.
"We'll meet our number, our numeric recovery goal, in three or four years. So, I say we're well on our way to recovery," he said.
But for every wolf win, there is a potential for loss.
Rancher Carey Dobson says in a good year, 1,500 of his cattle graze in and around the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, covering about 200,000 acres.
But he says his livestock and his livelihood are in constant danger because of the packs of wolves that live in the area.
"You'll go out there, you'll see these cows just in a big circle around this calf that's just been mutilated," he said. "There's just blood everywhere. And wolf prints everywhere."
Dobson estimates he's lost more than 200 animals to wolf depredations.
"Horses, everything. Sheep, cattle. They'll eat an animal alive," he said. "They don't just kill them. They'll start eating, pull their intestines out. It's horrific."
Mexican Gray Wolves have been in the area surrounding his ranch for thousands of years.
After ranchers arrived in the early 1900's, federal programs were started to eliminate the wolves from the landscape.
Dobson said his great-grandfather and other locals were contracted to help.
"They were paid to get rid of the wolves," he told ABC15.
By 1973, the federal Endangered Species Act officially made the practice illegal.
Three years later, the long-hunted wolves were placed on the list to be saved and a years-long effort to locate the remaining population was initiated.
"All of the Mexican wolves come from a founding population of seven," deVos said. "Three were captured in Mexico and two pairs were in private hands."
Eleven captive descendants of those wolves were reintroduced back into the wild in 1998.
Today their numbers are estimated to be just over 200.
"There are multiple packs throughout the forest," said rancher Tom Paterson.
He grew up working at his father's ranch and started his own with his family 25 years ago.
As wolf numbers increase, Paterson said the number of dead cattle in his pastures increase as well, with a frequency he did not see as a child.
"There was the occasional calf that you'd say a coyote killed the calf. But you didn't see dead cows the way we see them today. And the only thing that's changed is the introduction of the wolf," he told ABC15.
USDA Wildlife Services says it has confirmed 1,157 Mexican Gray Wolf depredations since 1998.
Getting ranchers and wolves to co-exist in Eastern Arizona has been the goal of those attempting to recover the endangered wolves.
Compensation for losses caused by wolves was supposed to be key to getting that done.
Paterson said though some type of compensation program for wolf depredations has been in place for nearly 20 years, ranchers still haven't been made whole for all the expenses that come with trying to avoid wolf encounters in the first place.
And now some ranchers fear proposed new rules will make it even harder to recover the losses they are entitled to.
"If it's a confirmed wolf kill, then the rancher will get compensated," he said.
USDA Wildlife Services is responsible for investigating reports of wolf depredations and sets the rules in what qualifies as a confirmed wolf kill.
Under the agency's current standard operating procedures, several factors can be considered in a confirmation including:
- Size of the canine spread on the hide of the animal
- Attack points on the carcass
- Size and extent of bones chewed by the predator
- Tracks/scat/hair in the area
- Disturbed vegetation and terrain in the area, with areas of blood on the ground
- Any additional evidence around the site
- Presence or history of wolves or other predators in the immediate area
- Subcutaneous hemorrhaging or pooling of blood under the skin
Paterson said the proposed new rules would require subcutaneous hemorrhaging to get paid and give the other factors less weight.
He fears the result will mean "a lot fewer confirmed kills." And potentially a lot less money to ranchers who say they are already losing money when they find dead cattle with the evidence eaten away or when they have to relocate them to different pastures when wolves are in the area.
"That costs money. Labor costs money. We don't get paid any of those expenses," Paterson said.
Repeat offending wolves can be moved to a different area or even lethally removed.
Paterson and other ranchers believe there is political pressure to stop the practice by changing the rules, making the kills harder to prove.
