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Order-Carnivora
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visitor number Author: Misti
Snodgrass
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Management Concerns The Red wolf is classified as an endangered spp.(animaldiversity). The last free ranging packs were reported in the 1930’s located in the Ozark/Quachita Mountain region in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri and in southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. Populations of red wolves were devastated due to extensive predator control programs and habitat loss. Red wolves populations are rebounding with the help of captive breeding and reintroduction programs. In early years red wolves interbreed with the coyote which further hastened decline of red wolves.(species.tws.gov/bio-rwol) In 1973 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services began a captive-breeding program. They removed all remaining wild red wolves and placed them in the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma Washington. From this location they genetically identified which individuals were truly red wolves only 17 of the 43 were. 1980 there were no red wolves remaining in the wild (species.tws.gov/bio-rwol). In 1987, four pairs of red wolves were released at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge Louisiana. The mortality rate was high and some wolves exhibited a tolerance for people. Mortality in the population was a result of diseases and parasites that they acquired from coyotes. During later releases the wolves were vaccinated against these diseases. Today the population at Alligator Refuge is 26 to 30 adults and yearlings and this population is capable of reproducing in the wild (endangered.fws.gov). Red Wolf Recovery Plan is to have “at least three disjunct wild populations”. The goal is to have approximately 220 animals in the wild and 330 in captivity. To reintroduce the red wolf back into the wild will require 225 square miles of land for each pack. The site must consist of adequate habitat, but the downfall is that some areas already have established coyote populations. Current research has not proven that red wolves will not interbreed with the coyotes (Endangered.fws.gov)
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