This week is Lobo Week and the El Paso Zoo wants to encourage everyone to celebrate the return of the Mexican wolf to the wilds of North America. Since the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program was first approved in 1982, the El Paso Zoo and many other zoos and breeding facilities. have played a very important role in helping to build up a captive population for reintroduction efforts that were first launched during the winter of 1998.

The people of El Paso are no doubt more enthusiastic than any city in Texas in supporting Mexican wolf recovery efforts. Here in Texas, wolves live only in zoos, while viable habitat is still available in many large areas of West Texas including national parks like Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park. Thanks to the El Paso Sierra Club group, over 20,000 signed letters have been sent to Texas Parks and Wildlife in support of a Mexican wolf reintroduction program in Texas. You can support this effort by signing an online petition where nearly 6000 people from all over have signed.

The Mexican wolf, one of the most endangered wolves in the world, once roamed the southwest US and Mexico by the thousands. At the turn of the last century wolves were killed by ranchers and government trappers largely because of conflicts with the livestock industry when wolves turned to domestic animals like sheep and cattle as prey.