Red Wolf – History of Distribution
At one time, the red wolf’s historical distribution was believed to have been limited to the southeastern USA – from Florida to east-central Texas, including southeastern Tennessee, Alabama, and most of Georgia and Florida, and as far north as southern Illinois. On the basis of further study, its historic range is now thought to have extended further north into the northeastern USA and extreme eastern Canada. Recent genetic evidence supports a similar but even greater extension of historic range into the Algonquin Provincial Park in southern Ontario, Canada.
The red wolf was formerly abundant over the southeastern USA as far west as east-central Texas. By the 1930′s it had been extirpated east of the Mississippi River. By the 1960′s only small populations remained in the coastal areas of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. In the middle 1970′s, all remaining wild animals were captured and a captive breeding program was initiated to help preserve the species. The species was extinct in the wild by 1980. Red wolves raised in the captive breeding program, starting with 17 red wolves captured in Texas and Louisiana, were re-introduced into eastern North Carolina in 1987. The current re-introduced population of red wolves occupies an area of roughly 6000 sq km (2300 sq mi) on the peninsula in eastern North Carolina between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. This area is comprised of 60% private land and 40% public land and contains three national wildlife refuges.
From 1991 – 1998 a second re-introduction project was conducted at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. However, the project was terminated, mainly due to a high pup mortality, which was suspected to be caused by disease, predation, malnutrition, and parasites.
Threats and Reasons for Decline:
Reasons for its decline included hunting, poisoning and trapping (because it was perceived as a threat to livestock, and possibly to people), habitat disruption, and competition and hybridization with the coyote.
Hybridization with coyotes, which became well established in northeastern North Carolina during the 1990s, is the primary threat to the current wild species’ existence.
Categories: Rare animals, Red Wolf
