20 years: Mexican wolf program still mired by frustrations

It was in a blizzard in a remote area near the Arizona-New Mexico border that a team of biologists opened the gates to three pens, letting loose 11 Mexican gray wolves that had the distinction of being the first of their kind to roam the wild in decades.

Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of that initial release of the endangered predators.

In the months following the 1998 release, five wolves were poached and the remaining animals had to be captured and paired with new mates before being released again.

The population has fluctuated over the last two decades, only recently reaching a high of 114 wolves.

The tortured and costly effort to return Mexican wolves to the American Southwest and Mexico has been fraught with much frustration fueled by a flurry of lawsuits, poaching and livestock deaths.