The recent recolonizing wolves in Upper Michigan are being accepted very well by the citizenry and the wild population is expanding to reach about the same density as Wisconsin's natural recolonizing population, which exceeds 100 animals. The red wolf and southwest wolf are a different story. The reintroduction of these forms are either being done or being planned, respectively, using captive stock from a very limited gene pool and both are being done with kid gloves. The southwest wolf is not such a happy story. Presently, all past attempts to reintroduce this subspecies to the SW in the White Sands Military Base have met with no support and a declining interest.
Locals are very anti-fed and distrust state agency personnel.
The SW wolf recovery plan is being updated and rewritten with all these new factors in mind, but little hope exists for the reintroduction of this subspecies in any of the past proposed sites. The captive SW wolves will just have to wait until the political atmosphere changes.