Asha at a rescue when she was first discovered in northern New Mexico in January. (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region)
After receiving criticism of its delayed release of the Mexican gray wolf called Asha, along with her mate and pups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week released the Quartz pack — so-named by the service — into the New Mexico wilderness.
A consortium of conservation groups that had called for Asha’s release announced the decision on Thursday. USFWS confirmed the release to Source New Mexico and said the pack was released from Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge “to the wild” on Aug. 6.
Asha — given her name by school children — became famous in 2023 when she left her pack in search of new territory — an act known as dispersal — and began wandering. Far. She wandered out of a government-set boundary, the Mexican wolf experimental population area — for wild wolves that bars them from I-40 to the New Mexico-Colorado border.
The endangered wolf’s wanderings landed her on the pages of National Geographic. Her ongoing captivity — more than a month had passed since the U.S. FWS’ own deadline for her release — prompted 8,000 citizens and 36 conservation groups to write to the service and the U.S. Interior Department in July seeking the wolves’ release.
The conservation groups announced Asha, her captive-born mate Arcadia and their five pups were released onto the conservation-managed, 244-square-mile Ladder Ranch, which adjoins the Aldo Leopold Wilderness within the Gila National Forest.
“Asha’s story should have continued in northern New Mexico where her instincts led her to travel twice — that is historic and future wolf country,” Greater Gila New Mexico advocate for WildEarth Guardians Leia Barnett said in a statement. “But until wildlife management agencies recognize that highways shouldn’t dictate where wildlife lives, Asha and the Quartz pack being released back into the Gila is the next best thing. We celebrate her new family’s next wild chapter.”
The pack’s delayed release from June, the conservation groups said in a news release, means the captive-born pups “missed the best opportunity to become accustomed to their natural prey of elk, which Mexican wolves typically learn to hunt in June and early July when elk calves abound.”
Asha’s two captures sparked numerous debates about wolf recovery strategies, and an ongoing political battle about the wild animal from ranchers and other critics of efforts to re-wild wolves.
A statement provided to Source New Mexico by a FWS spokesperson confirming the pack’s release, said: “The pack will add to the genetic diversity in the wild population, helping meet recovery goals. The Service is aware and shares the increasing concerns in the community about negative impacts to ranching from the growing wolf population. We, with the Interagency Field Team, are committed to immediately addressing any conflicts if/when they arise in partnership with the local community.”
“We are filled with hope that Asha, her mate, Arcadia, and their pups, Kachina, Aspen, Sage, Kai, and Aala, will roam freely for years to come,” Erin Hunt, managing director of Lobos of the Southwest, said in the statement. “They may not be able to read lines on a map, but these lobos can read the landscape and know where they belong. This young family will have an excellent teacher in their mom Asha, and the wild place they will call home will be better off with their presence.”
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