204 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



MEXICAN WOLF 

 CANIS LUPUS BAILEYI Nelson and Goldman 



Canis nubilus baileyi Nelson and Goldman, Journ. Mamm., vol. 10, p. 165, May, 1929 

 ("Colonia Garcia (about 60 miles southwest of Casas Grandes), Chihuahua, 

 Mexico"). 



FIG.: Bailey, 1931, pi. 18 (photograph). 



This is the wolf of "southern and western Arizona, southern 

 New Mexico, and the Sierra Madre and adjoining tableland of 

 Mexico as far south, at least, as southern Durango," and ac- 

 cording to its describers it is most nearly allied to the plains 

 wolf (C. I. nubilus) but is smaller and darker, more brownish or 

 rufescent, with a more slender and depressed rostrum. Its 

 greater size and other cranial characters indicate "no close 

 relationship" to C. rufus. Total length, 1,570 mm.; tail, 410; 

 skull, condylobasal length, 262. 



The authors quoted list various specimens from Chihuahua, 

 one from Sonora, and one from Durango, Mexico, as well as a 

 number from Arizona and New Mexico. "According to old 

 residents wolves that formerly inhabited the southern end of 

 the tableland, near the valley of Mexico, became extinct many 

 years ago. Wolves are still numerous, however, in the Sierra 

 Madre as far south at least as Durango." Specimens from 

 southwestern New Mexico show indications of intergradation 

 toward the plains wolf (Bailey, 1931, p. 303). "Their greatest 

 abundance has long been in the open grazing country of the 

 Gila National Forest" in the open yellow-pine forests and the 

 orchardlike growth of juniper, nut pine, and oak. "Apparently 

 they are not known in the Lower Sonoran valleys of this 

 region." Bailey (1931) has given an excellent account of the 

 habits of wolves in this area. He states that they persistently 

 cling to certain localities in their range for raising their young. 

 "Dens are always placed in the most out-of-the-way places, 

 with seemingly little regard for convenience as to water or 

 food." In rough country the dens are generally in a crevice or 

 natural cavity "usually in the rim of a mesa"; badger holes 

 are often enlarged, or the burrow may be worked out beneath 

 a mesquite or other bush that serves as a blind. 



Bailey (1931) tells further of trapping wolves in this region 

 and records that J. S. Ligon with a corps of trappers began a 

 trap line in 1916 for the purpose of reducing the number of 



