22
Red Wolf
WAZA magazine Vol 13/2012
William Waddell1 * & David Rabon Jr2
Extirpated in the Wild: Recovering the Red Wolf Summary The Red Wolf Recovery Programme represents one of the longest-standing partnerships involving an Association of Zoos and Aquariums animal conservation programme and US Fish and Wildlife Service recovery programme. Extinct in the Wild by 1980, the red wolf (Canis rufus) is currently classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This year highlights several prominent anniversaries in red wolf conservation. It was 45 years ago when the red wolf was first listed as Endangered under provisions of the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1967, a precursor to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (as amended). Ten years later, after establishing a managed breeding programme, the first litter of captive red wolf pups was born. This year also marks 25 years since restoration efforts began, when red wolves were released at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern North Carolina in the autumn of 1987. These milestones provide perspective in that species recovery programmes are often measured by slow, incremental accomplishments requiring persistence and flexibility as new information and obstacles emerge.
1 Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Tacoma, WA, USA 2 US Fish and Wildlife Service, Manteo, NC, USA * E-mail for correspondence: william.waddell@pdza.org
Extirpation in the Wild Red wolves (Canis rufus) occupied a diversity of habitat types throughout their historical range in the eastern and south-central United States (Fig. 1). As with many endangered species, altered and diminishing habitats would leave little room for sanctuary and press the red wolf into less than suitable environs. Widespread predator control programmes and relentless, indiscriminate killing devastated red wolf numbers, creating a problem that would be difficult for the species to overcome. By the time the US Fish and Wildlife Service intervened, the range of the species was confined to the coastal prairies and marshes of extreme south-eastern Texas and south-western Louisiana (USFWS 1990).
Fig. 1 Red wolf. © Seth Bynum/Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Preservation in the wild was given the highest priority, but the small and tenuous red wolf population also was hybridising with an eastwards expanding coyote population. The resulting mixture of canids was difficult to distinguish and further threatened the remaining red wolves with the loss of their genetic identity. The survival of the remnant red wolf population was uncertain, prompting programme officials to redirect their objective for the red wolf population from one of local preservation to planned extirpation in the wild. While the decision to remove the last red wolves appeared inevitable, it was done so within the framework of developing a long-range objective to ultimately return the species to select areas of its former range. By 1980 the red wolf was considered biologically Extinct in the Wild.