by 
A Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf runs in the snow. This public domain photo can be found at http://bit.ly/1M6jZ8g.
In the fall of 2014 a female wolf was spotted on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. She was the first wolf seen at the Grand Canyon since 1938. Park rangers, federal biologists and volunteers spent days marching across the countryside searching for scat. DNA tests confirmed that this lone female wolf was not part of the controversial Mexican Gray Wolf release program. This was a Rocky Mountain Wolf and she had migrated hundreds of miles south from the Wyoming/Idaho border. A contest was held to name the Grand Canyon’s newest resident. Entries came from around the world and the winning name was Echo – because she came back to the Grand Canyon. Sadly, on Dec. 14, a hunter in Utah mistakenly shot what he thought was a coyote. Weeks later DNA tests confirmed the tragic news that Echo the Wolf was dead.
The Mexican Gray Wolf reintroduction program in Arizona has been very successful with wolves being seen as far north as Lake Mary of the Flagstaff area. If more wolves return to the north rim, Mexican Gray and Rocky Mountain wolves might soon be separated only by the width of the Grand Canyon. I cannot imagine even that great chasm presenting much of a barrier to these adventurous beasts. Wolves, wherever they have been released, have quickly ignored the tiny confines of the national parks and wilderness areas which were meant to hold them. Wolves have migrated surprisingly far very quickly, and often covered vast tracts of land unseen. Not only was Echo the first wolf seen at the Grand Canyon but she was the second wolf seen in Utah in many decades. Had she arrived only a few months earlier, she would have been the first wolf in Utah as well as the first wolf at the Grand Canyon in over 70 years.
There have been unexpected benefits to wolf reintroduction. Studies done in Yellowstone have shown that many species benefit from the presence of wolves especially large raptors such as eagles and hawks who dine upon the leftover carcasses. Botany has benefitted as well, such as the aspen groves whose saplings are devoured and trampled by herds of elk without wolves to control the population. Successful wolf reintroduction programs such as Yellowstone have turned out to be hubs for wolf migrations in many directions and migrations which go much further than many biologists expected.
Although the news of Echo’s death hurts my heart, I wanted to take a moment remind people that despite this terrible tragedy, these are amazing times to be a nature enthusiast in Arizona. River otters were declared extinct in the state in the 1960s. But thanks to a reintroduction program involving captive Sonoran otters and their Louisiana Cajun cousins, otters can now be seen throughout much of the Verde Valley River system. Beavers are either thriving or have been reintroduced to several Arizona river systems including the San Pedro in a way that would make an old mountain man like James Ohio Pattie proud. Jaguars have been returning to the southwest for decades and now have federal protections. Rancher Warner Glenn recorded his encounter with a jaguar in his bookEyes of Fire. Glenn’s photos and video were the first documented proof of the return of the species. Much more evidence, and many more big cats would follow.
Like the return of Echo, the photos of the jaguar named Macho B were celebrated worldwide. Unlike Echo, Macho B was a resident for many years with photos of his distinctive “Betty Boop” spots taken all across the southern Arizona landscape. Like Echo, Macho B’s death was a tragic casualty in this reintroduction process. We can only hope that just as Macho B was a pioneering trailblazer for the return of jaguars, many more wolves will follow Echo to the Grand Canyon.
Condors sail the skies above the southwest in numbers we dared not hope many decades ago, when the giant birds had almost completely disappeared. An aggressive breeding program helped reestablish a fragile population. Some of my friends have been able to add condors to their lifetime birding lists.
The skies of southern Arizona were sometimes filled with giant, raucous flocks of parrots as late as 1922 until the brightly colored birds were over hunted into extinction in Arizona and New Mexico. The Thick Billed Parrot was a stocky 15 inches long and a bright green color with red patches on the forehead and shoulders. There have been a few attempts at reintroducing a flock into the Chiricahua Mountains but the problem is every time they release a flock of parrots the hawks and falcons arrive. Releasing more parrots has only attracted more winged predators. I am the only person I know who can check the Thick Billed Parrot off his birding list. In the late 1980s a small flock of parrots had been released in the Chiricahua Mountains but a huge storm soon hit the region. I was doing landscaping work in an old neighborhood, deep in the heart of Tucson, a neighborhood filled with big old trees and after hearing a cacophony in the branches looked upto see a pair of Thick Billed Parrots.
Since then another species of parrot has appeared in the state. In the Phoenix and Queen Creek area there are peach faced lovebirds. Native to Nigeria, the peach faced lovebirds thrive in the desert heat. The original release is believed to have occurred when an elaborate aviary in Phoenix fell into disrepair and 14 birds escaped. The tiny brightly colored birds have been photographed nesting in saguaros.
Once, many years ago, I was part of an adventure through the Gran Desierto and Sierra Pinacate region of Mexico and as we rolled across the lava fields our trucks scared up fourteen Sonoran pronghorn. The Sonoran pronghorn is a slightly smaller and very rare subspecies of the antelope which one sees across the rest of the continent. The day we crossed the international border and returned to the United States I purchased a newspaper whose headline declared that the number of endangered Sonoran pronghorn had dropped to approximately 400. I was startled to realize that I had just seen 14 of the 400 remaining Sonoran pronghorns racing like the wind across the dry desert prairie. A forest service friend of mine was speaking with a federal biologist who explained to him that one of the problems with Sonoran pronghorn populations is that their summer grazing grounds were the fields north of Oracle around the area of Antelope Hills. General consensus of the locals old enough to recall is that the antelopes disappeared from the Oracle area during the Great Depression and World War II. Perhaps the time has come for someone to look into local grazing leases and inquire about reintroducing antelopes to the Black Hills. It would be nice to see the summer home of Sonoran pronghorn restored.
Gary Every is an award winning author who has won consecutive Arizona Newspaper Awards for best lifestyle feature for pieces “The Apache Naichee Ceremony” and “Losing Geronimo’s Language”. The best of the first decade of his newspaper columns for The Oracle newspaper were compiled by Ellie Mattausch into a book titled Shadow of the OhshaD. Mr. Every has also been a four time finalist for the Rhysling Award for years best science fiction poetry. Mr. Every is the author of ten books and his books such as Shadow of the Ohshad or the steampunk thriller The Saint and The Robot are available either through Amazon or www.garyevery.com.
by by