Saving the Red Wolves

The red wolf is one of the world's most endangered wild canids and protected by the Endangered Species Act. Once common throughout the southeastern United States, red wolf populations were almost wiped out by the 1960s due to intensive predator control programs, the loss of habitat and extensive hybridization with coyotes.

Historically the red wolf ranged from southeastern Texas to central Pennsylvania. Today the only place red wolves can be found in the wild is in eastern North Carolinas’ Albemarle Peninsula. Equally at home in forests, swamps, and coastal prairies, red wolves can thrive in a wide range of habitats.

Red wolves are carnivores and, therefore, mostly eat meat. Their primary food consists of small rodents,rabbits, raccoons, and deer. They will also eat insects and berries. Red wolves live in North America.

The present threats to the red wolf are listed as transportation & service corridors such as roads & railroads; biological resource use such as hunting & trapping of terrestrial animals; Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases.

A five-year review of the status of the animals was released on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The report states that only about 40 wolves remain in the wild in North Carolina, down from the highest number of about 120 a decade ago. Another 230 wolves live in captivity.

What can we do to protect the Red Wolf? North Carolina conservationists plan to use several approaches to prevent the extinction. They banned night hunting of coyotes to avoid the accidental killing of wolves. Additionally, they plan to take the land owners to court for hunting coyotes at all times and urging the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to stop prohibiting night hunting and remove the wolves from their land.

If wolves which were captured on peoples land could hardly survive the ordeal of capture and did not easily survive on unfamiliar lands they were released on, the threat of extinction has not been properly addressed. For those reasons, the FWS was responsible for wolf deaths because they sided with the landowners to catch wolves and relocate them unsafely. Defenders of wildlife and other conservation organizations are litigating against the FWS for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but the litigation is ongoing. Finally, a better management plan is needed overall along with better advocacy and public education of critical situation for red wolves. Note that only after the Defenders of Wildlife and other organizations have continued to speak out about the red wolf recovery programs deficiencies, the FWS has announced that its handling of the red wolves will be reviewed.

References

1. https://nywolf.org/red-wolves/red-wolf-history

2. https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Red-Wolf

3. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150318-red-wolves-north-carolina-conservation-reintroduction-science/

4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wolf

5. https://www.ducksters.com/animals/red_wolf.php

6. https://nywolf.org/red-wolves/red-wolf-history

7. https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/24/red-wolf-extinction/

8. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/3747/119741683

9. https://defenders.org/red-wolf/what-defenders-doing