Incredible Moment A Wolf Family Strike A Pose For The Camera

When Maggie Howell, executive director of the WCC, looks at the family photo, she sees it as a symbol of the species clawing its way back from extinction. The Mexican gray wolf or 'lobo' is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America, Howell explains to My Modern Met. By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. Today, 196 Mexican gray wolves remain in the wild in the U.S.