ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Asha first made headlines when she crossed I-40 early last year and roamed hundreds of miles north of the designated Mexican gray wolf recovery zone.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife crews captured and released her back into the wild. Then, she did it again only a few months later.

It seemed like she was on track to be released again, but KOB 4 learned she’s not leaving captivity until she becomes a mom. 

“We as humans like to think that we know what the answers are and what the best solutions are. We often create problems where not exist. I think that’s what’s happened here,” said Cyndi Tuell, a New Mexico & Arizona director of the Western Watersheds Project. 

Wildlife advocates with the Western Watersheds Project will be the first to tell you Asha is not your typical Mexican gray wolf.

 “Asha has really shown us that she is an adventurous wolf. She likes long forays, and she knows where good habitat is,” said Tuell.

They say her back-to-back journeys into northern New Mexico – far outside the Mexican gray wolf recovery zone – are proof the critically-endangered wolves are ready to run past these borders.

“The wolves are telling us the science is right, the habitat is good, and this is where they need to be,” said Tuell. 

Reps with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say that’s not the plan for Mexican gray wolves, at least right now.

“Overall, our objective is to have Asha contribute to recovery,” said Brady McGee, a Mexican gray wolf recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “So part of the decision was to capture her, bring her into captivity, try to mate her with a captive-born male.”

But it seems Asha isn’t ready to settle down. Fish and Wildlife crews brought Asha to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge to mate with a male wolf and start a family. 

“We captured her in December, put her into a pen with two males, not knowing which one she would select,” said McGee. “But I think part of the problem may have been on our end, where we left the other male in there for too long, and he did not like the attention that his brother was getting from this female.”

It prevented Asha from mating during the February breeding season. Instead of releasing her back into the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to keep her in captivity and hope it works out next February.

“It was a pretty tough decision, and one that I weighed heavily for probably six weeks or more,” McGee said. “By keeping her in the pen another year, and releasing her with pups, it maximizes her success, because until she finds a mate and establishes a territory, her odds of either getting run over on a highway or shot are pretty high.”

But for wildlife advocates, the decision seems more like a punishment.

“They only see it as a breeding opportunity, but this wolf really has its own individual ideas about where it wants to be, and it has autonomy and should be given the choice of where it wants to roam,” said Tuell. 

It’s clear there’s a lot of passion when it comes to Asha , and all the Mexican gray wolves.

So what’s the end goal for these recovery efforts? Fish and Wildlife Service reps say there’s roughly 250 wolves living throughout the recovery zone right now which is a huge achievement after the species almost went extinct. But they want to see at least 320 wolves out there before they can start talking about relaxing some restrictions, and letting the wolves roam where they want.