The wolf was extirpated from Mexico in the 1970s, when the U.S. and Mexican governments cooperated to capture all remaining wild Mexican wolves and initiate a captive-breeding program in an attempt to save the local subspecies. The Mexican Wolf was reintroduced into the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona in 1998 as part of a captive breeding program. There were at least 42 wild Mexican wolves in the southwest United States in 2008. In 2014, there were around 83 Mexican wolves in the wild. In 2021, there were an estimated 196 wolves in the wild, distributed across western New Mexico and eastern Arizona.
