Red Wolf Update – Challenges Ahead
Cornelia Hutt, Red Wolf Coalition and International Wolf Center
Red wolves are special. They are the only large predators ever to have been declared extinct in the wild, bred in captivity and successfully reintroduced to a portion of their former range. Bringing the red wolf back from the brink of extinction has been a pioneering venture, and thanks to the efforts of the people who worked diligently for years to ensure that red wolves would once again live in the wild, there is now hope and cautious optimism. But the future of the red wolf is not secure. Although red wolf numbers continue to rise slowly, the recovery effort faces major challenges.
Challenge #1 – Limited Release Sites
Under the terms of the recovery plan for the red wolf, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) must find two additional reintroduction sites. This is difficult for two reasons. First, there are few large tracts of land in the Southeast. Human density is high, development is rapid, and roads and interstate highways fragment the region. Second, there is no place in the Southeast that is coyote-free. Learn more.
