Mexican gray wolf ‘Mr. Goodbar ‘walked 23 miles to bypass the border wall, the group says

McALLEN, Texas (border report) – An endangered Mexican gray wolf walked 37 miles over five days to circumvent a section of the border wall in New Mexico when trying to get into Mexico, an animal welfare group said.

The wolf nicknamed “Mr. Goodbar, ”had a GPS collar that regularly posted its locations to the US Fish and Wildlife Service as it covered almost the distance of a marathon from November 23rd to 27th. The locations were passed on to the Center for Biological Diversity this week.

“Mr. Goodbar’s Thanksgiving was lost as he was prevented from romanticizing a female and hunting deer and rabbits together,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate for the center. “But aside from the frustration of a single animal, the wall separates it the wolves in the southwest of those in Mexico and exacerbated inbreeding in both populations. “

An endangered Mexican gray wolf recently failed to break Trump’s border wall for almost a week. @POTUS needs to tear down this wall to reconnect wildlife habitat, populations and migration corridors – this is a disaster with a clear solution. https://t.co/92Gj5tNMmc

– Center for Bio Div (@CenterForBioDiv) December 15, 2021

The wolf migrated through the desert and canyon terrain from southwest Las Cruces, New Mexico and walked along the border wall for four days, according to a map provided by the center.

An Endangered Mexican Gray Wolf, AKA ‘Mr. Goodbar ‘migrated north of the southern New Mexico border from November 23-27, 2021. (Graphic from the Center for Biological Diversity)

On November 28th, after five days, “Mr. Goodbar ”was driving northwest, away from the border, according to his GPS locator.

Recently he was further north in the Gila National Forest, a mountain range that is popular with wolves east of the Arizona state line.

“Allowing Mexican gray wolves to roam free would do well in the sublime Chihuahuan Desert and its lush Sky Island mountains,” Robinson said in a press release.

“Mr. Goodbar” was born in the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas and was released into the wild in Arizona in 2020.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].