A federal judge has swatted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not doing enough to ensure there is a viable population of the Mexican gray wolf in Arizona and New Mexico.

It may not be surprising that an “aquatic desert” turtle faces long odds in life, but environmentalists and biologists still welcomed this week’s endangered species designation for the Sonoyta mud turtle.

More than a dozen endangered Mexican gray wolves were killed in 2016, including two at the hands of wildlife officials who were trying to survey the struggling population early last year.

Federal wildlife officials are now under a court order to update a decades-old recovery plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf, a predator that has struggled to regain a foothold in the American Southwest despite millions of dollars of investment in reintroduction efforts.

Wildlife officials are working to identify new locations to release Mexican gray wolf packs that have been raised in captivity.

Suspicion over federal plans to restore endangered Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest has spread to Colorado and Utah, where ranchers and officials are fiercely resisting any attempt to import the predators.

Arizona will pay nearly $400,000 to cover half the repairs needed at a Mojave County fish hatchery that raises trout for planting in the state.

Lawmakers are taking aim at the endangered Mexican gray wolf, moving ahead with a host of proposals aimed at the federally protected animal in Arizona.

Lawmakers are taking aim at the endangered Mexican Gray Wolf, approving a host of proposals attacking the federally-protected wolves in Arizona.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Jan. 25 proposed listing a small freshwater fish as an endangered species and setting aside almost 300 miles of Arizona and New Mexico streams as critical habitat for the fish.