I recently wrote that a Bengal tiger found inside an apartment in Albuquerque was deemed not to have had enough proper credentials to be placed permanently in an American zoo. It almost seemed that the animal was expected to be carrying some kind of ID card with its proper credentials.
I mean really, even if the critter didn’t follow the rules, you could tell it was a tiger just by looking at it. I’d be glad to see it safely kept in a zoo, even if it didn’t follow the rules.
I theorized that might have been easier for the large cat to have been admitted to Harvard Law School than to get the proper clearance for a safe home at an American zoo.
Well now we have another wild animal in a predicament about not following the rules.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that a member of the Mexican gray wolf population that was introduced in southwestern New Mexico several years ago had wandered north of Interstate 40 and was tracked as far north as Taos. The Fish and Wildlife Service has said that under the agreement to relocate the wolves in New Mexico, the animals were not to roam north of I-40.
The wolf known as Asha — a name given to her by schoolchildren — has an electronic collar which allows authorities to track her movement. The problem is that Asha doesn’t know exactly where she is and has not been given the proper equipment or training to track herself on a GPS device. Humans, however, seemed to know her every movement and eventually captured her somewhere north of I-40 and returned her to southwestern New Mexico.
Ranchers don’t care much for Mexican wolves because they believe they pose a threat to domestic livestock. Although I don’t know where you could find accurate information, I suspect that there are more cows north of I-40 in New Mexico than there are in the southwestern part of the state. So it’s just natural that wolves would want to go somewhere where they might have an easier time finding a snack.
Also, authorities say Asha may have been looking for a mate. You have to admit that traveling several hundred miles away from home is a sign that Asha was pretty lonely.
The bottom line is that Asha didn’t follow the rules — even if she didn’t know what they were — and is now back home pondering her next move.
I’m imaging a scene when Fish and Wildlife Service authorities were about to let Asha out of her cage and gave her a last-minute lecture on the error of her ways.
“Bad wolf! Bad wolf,” a sternly voiced Fish and Wildlife agent might have said. “Now you stay near home and don’t cross any highways. Remember what your mother told you when you were a pup — don’t cross any roads because you might get squished by a Ford F-150. And besides, it’s against the rules.”
Glad to be done with the lecture, I’m sure Asha dashed off into the wilderness the second the gate in her cage was opened. She’s probably not thinking about the rules but is pondering hooking up with that cute male wolf who wandered over from Arizona a couple of weeks ago.
aero-cordero.com 