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2015 annual report. The aerial survey was conducted by fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter. Biologists used radio- telemetry and actual sightings of wolves to help determine the count. The results from the aerial survey, coupled with the ground survey conducted by the IFT, confirmed: ? There are a total of

21 packs, with a minimum of

47 wolves in New Mexico and

50 wolves in Arizona. ? The current survey documented

10 packs that had at least one pup that survived through the end of the year. ? The

2015 minimum population count includes

23 wild-born pups that survived through the end of the year. The Mexican wolf is the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America. Once common throughout portions of the southwestern United States, it was all but eliminated from the wild by the 1970s. In 1977, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve the species. In 1998, Mexican wolves were released to the wild for the first time in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area within the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. The Mexican wolf recovery program is a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, White Mountain Apache Tribe, USDA Forest Service and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service C Wildlife Services, and several participating counties. For more information on the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program, please visit: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf or www.azgfd.gov/wolf. -30-