‘No Wolves Are Being Released in Texas,’ Officials Say After Facebook Post Sparks Panic

Texas wildlife officers went out of their method Wednesday to guarantee the general public that Mexican grey wolves usually are not being launched into the state, and that there are not any plans to take action sooner or later. This public statement was needed, officers say, due to a recent Facebook post by the Texas Division of Agriculture that made it appear to be the endangered wolves could be “getting a second probability” within the Lone Star State.

“Historical past is within the making on the Laredo Export Pens,” the submit reads. “This male wolf will play a important position in efforts to repopulate and restore the species, supporting binational conservation work aimed toward preserving one in every of North America’s most iconic predators for future generations.”

The submit didn’t specify that the endangered wolf was truly being transported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service right down to Mexico. With Mexican wolves now thriving and surpassing recovery goals in New Mexico and Arizona, wildlife managers within the U.S. and Mexico are working collectively to deliver a few of these wolves south of the border. This requires the wolves to be transported by way of Texas, in line with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Division.

“This can be a federal program, the place USFWS has a partnership with Mexico to maneuver these grey wolves and assist their populations down in Mexico,” says TPWD spokesperson Lerrin Johnson. “[Under] Texas state regulation, there are not any exemptions for a federal company such because the USFWS to maneuver grey wolves by way of Texas. In order that they needed to be escorted by a state or county entity as a part of their official duties.” 

Most Fb customers in Texas weren’t conscious of this partnership, nevertheless, and the Dept. of Agriculture’s submit generated lots of of blended feedback a few potential wolf reintroduction program there. Many commenters truly appeared to assist this, whereas others both criticized or poked enjoyable on the thought.

Based on Johnson, the telephones had been additionally ringing off the hook on the company’s workplace in Austin on Tuesday. Many of the callers weren’t completely happy, she says.

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“That’s what spurred us to place out an announcement, as a result of our workers was getting lots of unfavourable suggestions from people, asking, you recognize, ‘Why are we doing this?’” Johnson says. She clarifies that “no wolves are being launched in Texas” and that “we’ve no plans to launch wolves in Texas.”

The USFWS didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, and Johnson couldn’t communicate to how lengthy this partnership with Mexico has been underway. It’s additionally unclear what number of Mexican wolves have been — or can be — transported by way of Texas.

Johnson talked about the potential of Mexican wolves dispersing into Texas from the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, which covers parts of Arizona and New Mexico south of Interstate 40. USFWS carefully displays the wolf inhabitants on this space, and it tries to maintain GPS collars on at the very least one or two wolves in every pack. Underneath the present federal management plan, any Mexican wolf that leaves this space must be trapped and translocated again to the restoration zone. 

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Dispersals to the north have occurred earlier than — most recently in 2025, when a male wolf often known as M3065 crossed I-40 a number of instances, even after being relocated by the USFWS. The wolf was later found dead along the interstate in January. 

Mexican wolves dispersing southward into Texas is virtually unparalleled, nevertheless. Johnson says TPWD has no information of this occurring, and there are not any data of it on the USFWS web site.

The closest Texas has come to recording a wild Mexican wolf on the panorama was in 2017. In January of that 12 months, Mexican biologists tracked a collared wolf that had handed by the town of Juárez on its strategy to Mount Cristo Rey, which straddles the border between New Mexico and Mexico and overlooks El Paso, Texas. The wolf stayed on Cristo Rey for a couple of days earlier than returning to the inside mountains of Mexico.