In 1997, Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch in south-central New Mexico became part of an ambitious attempt to rescue the Mexican wolf from extinction. Rather than treating his vast ranchland simply as private property, Turner helped create a wolf management facility where endangered animals could be housed, bred and prepared for a return to the wild. The Mexican wolf, a distinct subspecies of grey wolf, had been driven from much of its former range by persecution and predator-control campaigns. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the last wild Mexican wolves were captured in the 1970s and used to establish a captive breeding programme. By 1998, wolves from that programme were being released in Arizona and New Mexico. Ladder Ranch became an important link in that process, providing a controlled setting where wolves could reproduce and acclimatise while retaining natural behaviour. Decades later, the facility remains closely tied to efforts to rebuild wild Mexican wolf populations across the Southwest today.
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