Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is one of the most endangered wolves in the world, with approximately one-hundred individuals existing in the wild. Their native habitat, the semi-arid forested environments of New Mexico and Arizona are experiencing ecological degradation resulting from their absence. Effects include herbivory population imbalance, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss. Restoration of Mexican wolves could potentially cause a trophic cascade, or major ecological revamping of the region's entire ecosystem. Two decades of restoration efforts have not yielded consequential results, suggesting that a new approach toward their conservation is needed. It is asserted that the application of a semiotic or relational approach applying frame theory developed by anthropologist Gregory Bateson and detailed in Semioepistemology by Richard Currie Smith, could direct effective restoration; this successful physical and semiotic return of the wolves would foster latent resilient qualities of self-organization and emergence allowing the ecosystem to regenerate and stabilize.