‘No Wolves Are Being Released in Texas,’ Officials Say After Facebook Post Sparks Panic

Texas wildlife officials went out of their way Wednesday to assure the public that Mexican gray wolves are not being released into the state, and that there are no plans to do so in the future. This public statement was necessary, officials say, because of a recent Facebook post by the Texas Department of Agriculture that made it seem like the endangered wolves would be “getting a second chance” in the Lone Star State.

“History is in the making at the Laredo Export Pens,” the post reads. “This male wolf will play a critical role in efforts to repopulate and restore the species, supporting binational conservation work aimed at preserving one of North America’s most iconic predators for future generations.”

The post failed to specify that the endangered wolf was actually being transported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service down to Mexico. With Mexican wolves now thriving and surpassing recovery goals in New Mexico and Arizona, wildlife managers in the U.S. and Mexico are working together to bring some of those wolves south of the border. This requires the wolves to be transported through Texas, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“This is a federal program, where USFWS has a partnership with Mexico to move those gray wolves and help their populations down in Mexico,” says TPWD spokesperson Lerrin Johnson. “[Under] Texas state law, there are no exemptions for a federal agency such as the USFWS to move gray wolves through Texas. So they had to be escorted by a state or county entity as part of their official duties.” 

Most Facebook users in Texas weren’t aware of this partnership, however, and the Dept. of Agriculture’s post generated hundreds of mixed comments about a potential wolf reintroduction program there. Many commenters actually seemed to support this, while others either criticized or poked fun at the idea.

According to Johnson, the phones were also ringing off the hook at the agency’s office in Austin on Tuesday. Most of the callers weren’t happy, she says.

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“That’s what spurred us to put out a statement, because our staff was getting a lot of negative feedback from folks, asking, you know, ‘Why are we doing this?’” Johnson says. She clarifies that “no wolves are being released in Texas” and that “we have no plans to release wolves in Texas.”

The USFWS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Johnson couldn’t speak to how long this partnership with Mexico has been underway. It’s also unclear how many Mexican wolves have been — or will be — transported through Texas.

Johnson mentioned the possibility of Mexican wolves dispersing into Texas from the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, which covers portions of Arizona and New Mexico south of Interstate 40. USFWS closely monitors the wolf population in this area, and it tries to keep GPS collars on at least one or two wolves in each pack. Under the current federal management plan, any Mexican wolf that leaves this area has to be trapped and translocated back to the recovery zone. 

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Dispersals to the north have happened before — most recently in 2025, when a male wolf known as M3065 crossed I-40 multiple times, even after being relocated by the USFWS. The wolf was later found dead along the interstate in January. 

Mexican wolves dispersing southward into Texas is practically unheard of, however. Johnson says TPWD has no knowledge of this occurring, and there are no records of it on the USFWS website.

The closest Texas has come to recording a wild Mexican wolf on the landscape was in 2017. In January of that year, Mexican biologists tracked a collared wolf that had passed by the city of Juárez on its way to Mount Cristo Rey, which straddles the border between New Mexico and Mexico and overlooks El Paso, Texas. The wolf stayed on Cristo Rey for a few days before returning to the interior mountains of Mexico.