Catching up with an old friend from Alpine

It has easily been over 30 years since I have had the opportunity to spend anytime catching up with my old friend Roy McBride from Alpine. Roy and I worked on our Masters Degrees at Sul Ross State University when I first moved to Texas in 1974. Back in those days Roy was a living legend of sorts because of his experience and knowledge of predators in the Southwest. As a result when the time came to launch an emergency rescue effort to save the Mexican wolf from extinction, Roy was the man the US Fish and Wildlife Service called to take the lead.

During the time that we were riding around West Texas together talking about wolves, bears and mountain lions we shared a lot and for a short time I lived with him and his wife Jerry while I was still in school. I was saddened to learn when we talked last week that Jere had passed away 14 years ago. She was a wonderful lady and I have very fond memories of her.

I wrote about those days and the Mexican wolf in a chapter I wrote for a book called War Against the Wolf. That was back in 1995 and I hope to someday update my reflections in my own book. The book is a comprehensive history of American sentiment about the wolf and is still available on Amazon.com.

Roy is still out working with predators helping with conservation efforts and keeping his business going in Alpine. I hope we can meet and catch up in person soon.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter I wrote entitled 1995: Aqui No Hay Mas Lobos where I wrote about Roy. Later I posted an old 8mm film on YouTube that I took of one of the last wild wolves from Mexico that Roy captured for the captive breeding program that is now helping to restore the species in the wild.

If anyone knew where to find wolves in Mexico and how to capture them, Roy was the man. It was ironic that after playing a small part in helping to bring the species to the brink of extinction, he was now being asked to help save it. One of the last wild endangered Mexican wolves known to science glared at me from inside a large enclosure on McBride's small ranch. I can still picture it's shaggy gray-and-rust- colored coat and how out of place it looked from behind the wire fence. A three-minute 8mm movie film refreshes my memory of that haunting day. My heart is filled with sadness at the thought that to save the species we had to capture the last known survivors and keep them and their descendants in pens until the time that it will be safe to release them back into the wild.