America's Most Endangered Wolf Is Being Shot by Its Own Protectors

America's most endangered wolf is facing a genetic crisis that could doom the species — and wildlife agencies are making it worse by continuing to kill the very animals they're supposed to protect.

Mexican gray wolves have lost genetic diversity for four straight years, with the wild population now carrying 37% less genetic variation than wolves held in captivity. The entire species descends from just seven animals captured decades ago, creating a devastating genetic bottleneck that's causing lower birth rates, cancer, and birth defects like fused toes. It's a textbook case of what happens when a population gets too small and inbred.

Yet instead of releasing genetically valuable wolf families from captivity — a strategy that worked brilliantly when last tried in 2006 — agencies continue removing and killing wolves from the wild. Since April alone, they've shot a pregnant female in Arizona, killed her pup, captured four more wolves from an Arizona pack, and are currently hunting down the adult son of the slain mother. They're literally destroying the genetic material the species desperately needs to survive.

Thirty conservation groups are now demanding that agencies stop the removals and start releasing wolf families together, as they did nearly two decades ago when genetic diversity peaked. They're also asking agencies to let Mexican wolves naturally interbreed with northern gray wolves, as they did for thousands of years before humans drew arbitrary management boundaries. Without these changes, the howls that have returned to southwestern canyons after decades of silence could fall quiet again — this time for good.