Monument to Stupidity

When the defeated former president began building a wall along the US-Mexican border, one of the objections to the plan was that the structure would be a barrier to migration corridors for wildlife.

In 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity reported that the wall would put no less than 93 endangered species in harm's way, “from jaguars to ocelots to Mexican gray wolves.” Well, guess what.

In November the Center tracked a lonely gray wolf seeking a mate as he was repeatedly blocked by the wall southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

He paced along the 27-mile stretch but could not find love. This particular wolf was born in the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas and named Mr. Goodbar before his 2020 release into the wild in Arizona.

“Mr. Goodbar’s Thanksgiving was forlorn, since he was thwarted in romancing a female and hunting together for deer and jackrabbits,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “But beyond one animal’s frustrations, the wall separates wolves in the Southwest from those in Mexico and exacerbates inbreeding in both populations.”

The Center was able to track Mr. Goodbar because he was wearing a radio collar. Before the hideous wall was built, the conservation group observed other wolves roaming freely between the borders. One can only wonder how many uncollared animals – wolves and many other species – are thwarted by the barrier.

“President Biden should knock down the wall,” Robinson said. “Allowing Mexican gray wolves to roam freely would do right by the sublime Chihuahuan Desert and its lush sky-island mountains. We can’t allow this stark monument to stupidity to slowly strangle a vast ecosystem.”

Mr. Biden, tear down that wall!

Photo credit: Jim Clark