PHOENIX (AP) -- Free only six days, a young Mexican gray wolf was found dead along a highway near the Arizona-New Mexico line.
The 10-month-old wolf, found Sunday by a motorist, was set free March 15 along with another female pup and two adults, federal officials said Monday.Hans Stuart, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Albuquerque, N.M., said the wolf was found along Highway 191, 16 miles north of the ranching community of Clifton.
He said officials did not know how the wolf died. The body was sent to Oregon for lab tests, results of which should be available in about three weeks, Stuart said.
The dead wolf was found just two miles from the acclimation pen where she and the rest of the family group had spent two months before being released in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.
The three other wolves will remain free, Stuart said.
In all, five Mexican gray wolves, including a pair released in December, are free.
Mexican gray wolves are native to Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico but were shot, poisoned and trapped to near extinction by the 1970s.