Lobo lobito, ¿estás ahí?... No; he sido extirpado o Historia de la extirpación del lobo gris (Canis lupus) en el sur del Altiplano Mexicano

Abstract

After humans, the gray wolf is the mammal that had the largest known natural global distribution. Throughout it, while humanswere hunter-gatherers the gray wolf was a totemic animal, spiritual guide, and friend, but gradually, in Europe and Asia, thisperception changed to that of undesirable vermin that had to be eliminated, due to its predation on domestic animals. Europeansbrought that sentiment to the Americas and the gray wolf was persecuted until it was eradicated from most of its range, includingfrom all of Mexico. In this paper we review the history of its eradication in the southern part of the Mexican Plateau. In this region,the persecution that culminated in its extirpation developed from the 19th Century to the mid-20th Century. The history of the wolfin the region is not unique but it is shared with that of many species when two different cultures meet and capital has the last word