The Monthly [In]Sanity Check - September 2003

Guest Article

The Red Wolf; An Endangered Creature
By Shauna WhiteWolf of Blue Kingdom

The red wolf is twice as big as a coyote and about half the size of a gray wolf. Adult females are usually 52 pounds and adult males average 61 pounds. Their name comes from their reddish-brown hair. Red wolves have tall, pointed ears and long legs with big feet. Adults stand about 26 inches tall at the shoulder and are about 4 1/2 feet long from the top of their snout to the end of their tail.

Red wolves were found throughout the southeastern United States. Their current mainland range is eastern North Carolina at the Alligator River National Wildlife refuge and eastern Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A few red wolves have also been reintroduced to small islands off the coasts of South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi.

Red wolves were eliminated in the southeastern United States by trapping, poisoning, shooting, and destruction of critical habitat. By the mid-1960s the few remaining red wolves were restricted to isolated areas along the Gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas. These surviving wolves were in terrible physical condition. The most obvious problem was "sarcoptic mange," (a skin disease) caused by a tiny external parasite. Some of the wolves had rubbed and scratched away most of their hair trying to relieve the itching caused by the parasite. An even more serious problem was heartworm. This internal parasite is carried by mosquitoes and injected into the animal's bloodstream as the mosquito is feeding. Adult worms live in the wolf's heart and cause severe health problems that can lead to death. Because of the red wolves' poor physical condition, loss of habitat, and persecution by man, biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came to the conclusion that the only way to save the red wolf was to take it out of the wild.

Animals thought to be pure red wolves were flown to the captive breeding program, managed by the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. Of the 400 animals biologists captured, only 17 were certified as pure red wolves. The others were part coyote, part red wolf. Both wolves and coyotes are members of the canine family (dogs and foxes are also canines) and many had mated over the years, creating a hybrid, or mixed-breed canine. In only a few decades, a magnificent predator that had roamed the southeastern United States for centuries had been reduced to less than 20 animals.

The red wolf capture program ended in 1980. In the autumn of that same year, genetically pure red wolves were considered to be extinct in the wild.

The Red Wolf Recovery Program
By 1983 the captive red wolf population had increased to 63 animals. But if the red wolf was going to be saved from extinction there would have to be at least 500 red wolves in captivity and in the wild. In order to reach this goal, zoos from all over the country were asked to participate in the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan managed by the American Zoo Association. Dozens of zoos responded by building red wolf pens and joining the effort to save the red wolf. Within a few years the captive red wolf population doubled. There were now "surplus" red wolves that could be released into the wild.

In November 1986 four pairs of red wolves were flown from captive facilities to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina to begin their acclimation period prior to release. These first animals were reintroduced to the wild in September 1987.

As of June 30, 1996, the total red wolf population was thought to be between 242 and 296 animals. Fifty to 104 animals were thought to be living in wild reintroduction sites, 11 wolves on islands, and 181 wolves in captivity. The difference in numbers for the wild population is the result of two factors: 1) Biologists have lost radio contact with 20 wolves during the course of the program and they don't know if the wolves are still alive. 2) Some wolves have been seen, but not captured — this includes pups from current and past breeding seasons.

Since the first release at the Alligator River in 1987, 69 captive-born red wolves have been reintroduced and 95 pups have been born in the wild. Eighty-five percent of the current free-ranging red wolf population at the Alligator River were born in the wild.

In 1991 a second mainland reintroduction site was established in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee. Since that time 39 captive red wolves have been released and 24 pups have been born in the wild in six litters.

Information and pictures found at here. You can hear the howl of the red wolf at the same place, listen to it, I think it sounds kinda sad; maybe because it's trapped and knows that its race is almost gone.