President Trump signs order to review gray, Mexican wolf protections

EL PASO, TEXAS (KVIA) -- President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday calling on the Secretary of the Interior to review endangered species protections for the gray wolf and the Mexican wolf in a move to support ranchers protecting livestock.

In the executive order, President Trump says that while the Administration has done several things to support ranchers, "more can and should be done to support this critical industry."

The order states that within 90 days, the Secretary of the Interior will determine if the gray wolf and the Mexican wolf have met the recovery requirements for delisting or downlisting under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). If the Secretary finds they have met the criteria, the Secretary will begin the process to delist or downlist the species.

Once the process begins, entities such as the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will encourage states to delist gray wolves and Mexican wolves from any State-specific lists of protected species and revise any standards for lethal takings of gray wolves and Mexican wolves to help ranchers protect their livestock from attacks. For the full executive order, click here.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that gray wolves were originally listed under the Endangered Species Act as subspecies or as regional populations of subspecies in the contiguous United States and Mexico. In 1978, we reclassified the gray wolf as endangered at the species level (C. lupus) throughout the contiguous United States and Mexico, except for gray wolves in Minnesota, which were classified as threatened.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a subspecies of gray wolf, the Mexican wolf, was close to being eliminated in areas throughout the Southwestern United States and Mexico due to conflicts with livestock. In 1976, the Mexican wolf was listed as endangered, and a binational captive breeding program was initiated soon after to save the species from extinction.

Local effort for restoration and conservation of Mexican wolves:

The El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens is one of several zoos across the United States that have played a role in restoration and conservation efforts of the Mexican wolf population.

ABC-7 previously reported that the El Paso Zoo's Cross-Fostering Program brought two Mexican wolves from the Phoenix Zoo, which eventually gave birth to six Mexican wolf pups in 2021.

Photo Courtesy: El Paso Zoo

The zoo went on to help introduce 4 pups in 2021 and 3 pups in 2022 into the wild. According to the El Paso Zoo, the pups were introduced into dens that had previously accepted captive-born pups.

The El Paso Zoo announced that one of the pups that was introduced into the wild eventually found a wild female companion in May 2024.