Mexican wolf
Canis lupus baileyi
Aletris M. Neils & Geoffrey H. Palmer
Natural History
The Mexican Gray Wolf is the rarest, most genetically distinct, and smallest subspecies of the gray
wolf in North America.
 Males are up to 5.5’ long (around the size of a German Shepherd dog), with females slightly
smaller
 Adults weigh 50 to 80 lbs.
 Mexican wolves live in packs consisting of one adult (alpha) pair, pups, and related yearlings
 Howling is an important form of wolf communication
 Breeding occurs in February, and litters of up to 8 pups are born in mid-April
 Diet includes deer, elk, pronghorn, small mammals, and livestock
Wolves Today
Did you know? - Today killing a Mexican wolf
is a violation of the Federal Endangered
Species Act, and invokes a fine up to $50,000
and/or 1 year in prison.
Figure 1. The Mexican Wolf Running
History of Decline
Until recently the Mexican wolf ranged
throughout the Sonoran and Chihuahuan
Deserts from Mexico, east to western Texas,
and west to Arizona. Trappers eradicated the
Mexican wolf by the 1950s in the United
States.
Figure 4. Mexican Wolf Range Map.
Figure 5. Mexican Wolf Tracks.
Wolf Encounters
*Just in case! - If a wolf should approach you,
raise your arms to look as large as possible.
Throw rocks and yell to scare the animal
away and back away slowly. Never, ever run!
Figure 2. Dead wolf carcasses.
Figure 3. The release of a wolf.
Reintroduction
In 1998, a reintroduction program began
releasing Mexican wolves back into the wild
in Arizona. Today approximately 300 Mexican
wolves exist in the wild and captivity.
Figure 6. Female Mexican Wolf.
Mexican wolf
Canis lupus baileyi
Aletris M. Neils & Geoffrey H. Palmer
Natural History
The Mexican Gray Wolf is the rarest, most genetically distinct, and smallest subspecies of the gray
wolf in North America.
 Males are up to 5.5’ long (around the size of a German Shepherd dog), with females slightly
smaller
 Adults weigh 50 to 80 lbs.
 Mexican wolves live in packs consisting of one adult (alpha) pair, pups, and related yearlings
 Howling is an important form of wolf communication
 Breeding occurs in February, and litters of up to 8 pups are born in mid-April
 Diet includes deer, elk, pronghorn, small mammals, and livestock
Wolves Today
Did you know? - Today killing a Mexican wolf
is a violation of the Federal Endangered
Species Act, and invokes a fine up to $50,000
and/or 1 year in prison.
Figure 1. The Mexican Wolf Running
History of Decline
Until recently the Mexican wolf ranged
throughout the Sonoran and Chihuahuan
Deserts from Mexico, east to western Texas,
and west to Arizona. Trappers eradicated the
Mexican wolf by the 1950s in the United
States.
Figure 4. Mexican Wolf Range Map.
Figure 5. Mexican Wolf Tracks.
Wolf Encounters
*Just in case! - If a wolf should approach you,
raise your arms to look as large as possible.
Throw rocks and yell to scare the animal
away and back away slowly. Never, ever run!
Figure 2. Dead wolf carcasses.
Figure 3. The release of a wolf.
Reintroduction
In 1998, a reintroduction program began
releasing Mexican wolves back into the wild
in Arizona. Today approximately 300 Mexican
wolves exist in the wild and captivity.
Figure 6. Female Mexican Wolf.
Jaguar & Mountain lion
Panthera Onca & Puma concolor
Aletris M. Neils & Geoffrey H. Palmer
Jaguar
Natural History
 The 3rd largest cat in the world
 The largest and most powerful feline in the
western hemisphere
 Weighs between 100 and 250 lbs.
 Adults are 6’ to 8’ long
 Has a rosette spotted coat
 Dense forest is the preferred habitat
 Solitary
 Stalk and ambush predator
 Can travel distances of over 500 miles
Figure 1. The Jaguar.
Mountain Lion
th
5
 The
largest cat in the world
 Males are over 2’ tall at the shoulder and can
be over 8’ long
 ♂ weigh 115-200 lbs/ ♀ are slightly smaller
 Can purr, but cannot roar
 Only eat fresh meat. Diet includes: deer, elk,
bighorn sheep, javelina, and livestock
 Ambush hunter and stalks its prey
 Solitary animal
 Territory size depends on the amount of prey
Figure 2. The Mountain Lion or Puma.
History of the Jaguar
History of the Puma
Jaguars historically ranged as far north as
the Grand Canyon, but were never common in
AZ. Persecution and a high market value for
jaguar fur led to the extirpation of the jaguar
from the US in the 1930s. Despite this, jaguars
continued to have an intermittently low
population in southeastern AZ. Jaguars are
currently listed as an endangered species and
the closest breeding population of jaguars is
approximately 200 miles south of the US
border in Mexico. Jaguars do still
occasionally enter southern AZ, and have the
potential to rebound given the proper
protection, however the completion of the USMexico border fence will prevent recolonization.
The Mountain Lion is also known as a puma,
cougar, and panther. Perhaps the most
adaptable of all apex predators in the new
world, mountain lions occur in a wide variety
of habitats and probably survived the past
predator eradication campaigns because of
their highly cryptic and solitary nature, as
well as their natural propensity to inhabit
some of the most rugged terrain around.
Although mountain lion populations are
decreasing, of all the large carnivores in
Arizona, it is the only species that currently
has any probability of long term persistence.
Cat Encounters
*Just in case! - If you come across a mountain lion in the
Figure 3. Deer trying to get
though the US- Mexico
boarder fence.
wild, do not corner or provoke it. If you feel threatened, try
to look larger than you are. Give it plenty of room to leave
the area without feeling threatened by you. Slowly back
away, DO NOT RUN, and if attacked fight back! If you ever
want to see a mountain lion up close, go to the zoo.
Figure 4. Puma Range in
North America.
Grizzly bear & Black bear
Ursus arctos & ursus americanus
Aletris M. Neils & Geoffrey H. Palmer
Grizzly Bear
Natural History
Solitary
Females produce 1 to 4 cubs (usually 2)
♂ weigh 500-800 lbs./ ♀ weigh 250 -450 lbs.
Longer claws than the black bear
Omnivorous, diet consists of plants & animals
Have a characteristic “hump” on their
shoulder differentiating them from black bears
Grizzly bears are always brown in color
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Black Bear
 Black bears are shy, curious and intelligent
 Diet primarily consists of berries, roots, insects, cactus
fruit, and sometimes vertebrates
 Males weigh from 150-600 lbs./ Females weigh from 100350 lbs.
 Cubs are born in January & stay with the mother for ~
1.5 years
 They can live up to 20 years of age in wild
 Habitat – primarily found at elevations between 4,000 10,000’
 Generally “hibernate ” from November through March
 Vary in color from black, to brown, to blond and
cinnamon.
The Black Bear
Figure 1. The Grizzly Bear.
Figure 1. The Black Bear.
History of the Grizzly
The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos arizonae) was
the largest apex predator found in Arizona.
Grizzlies were once found throughout the
Western United States, including most of
eastern Arizona. This species was extirpated
from Arizona in 1923 due to trophy hunting
and persecution from ranchers. All grizzly
bears south of the Yellowstone population
have been eradicated.
Grizzly Bear
The American Black Bear is currently the
only bear species found in Arizona. The
extirpation of the grizzly bear led to the
ecological release of the American black bear
to fill the grizzly’s ecological niche. Prior to
1929, black bears, like most carnivores, were
considered to be “predatory” animals and
were given no legal protection in the state of
Arizona. The same ranchers and government
agents who eliminated the grizzly bear sought
to do the same to its smaller relative. Bears
were poisoned, trapped or shot on sight under
the semblance of protecting livestock. In 1924
it was estimated that only 1,500 black bears
remained in all of the Southwest. Today, bear
populations have rebounded and they are
found throughout the state. .
Bear Encounters
*Just in case! - Grizzly bears normally avoid
contact with people. Even so, they can be
extremely dangerous. If you see a bear, try to
back away slowly and if you are being attacked
it is best to play dead.
Black Bear
 *Just in case! - Black bears normally avoid
contact with people, although they can be
attracted to our trash. If you do encounter a
bear, do not corner or provoke it. If you feel
threatened, try to look larger than you are.
Back away slowly and if you are being attacked,
fight back!
Conserving Top Carnivores in
Ecosystems: Preventing an
Environmental Collapse
Aletris M. Neils & Geoffrey H. Palmer
What is an apex predator?
 An apex predator is an animal
that is not prey to other
animals and is at the top of
the food chain.
 In the diagram below, the wolf
and lynx both act as apex
predators in the ecosystem.
What is a trophic level?
 A trophic pyramid represents the
energy flow through an
ecosystem.
 Each step up the pyramid is
accompanied by a roughly 90%
reduction in energy.
 Because of this loss of energy,
there is a limit to the number of
levels, and also accounts for the
number of individuals of each
species in a single trophic level.
 In the example above, imagine
that there must be many more
individual deer and raccoons
available to a single bear than
depicted.
What happens when an apex predator is
removed from an ecosystem?
 The ecosystem undergoes a systematic
collapse, a trophic cascade where primary
consumers negatively impact primary
producers
 The diagram below represents the impact a
cougar has on an ecosystem. Without the
cougar, deer proliferate, consuming all of the
vegetation they can reach.
 As a result, resources are no longer available
to other animals, and the soil begins eroding.
What can be done to save ecosystems where
the apex predators have been extirpated
(made locally extinct) by humans?
 Re-introducing the species that acted as the
apex predator back into the ecosystem has
been shown to restore control over the overpopulated primary consumers.
 Over time, the rest of the ecosystem begins
to recover as primary producers (plants) are
able to regenerate and provide food and
shelter for the entire suite of animals
initially found in that ecosystem.
 The reintroduction of wolves into
Yellowstone National Park is one example
of how this restoration can be successful
in renewing an ecosystem.
1890s
1970s 1976 1998
2009