Effort to Save Red Wolf Population Expands as Pair Are Sent Into Wild

NEW ORLEANS —  The effort to reintroduce to the wild an animal that survived only in captivity is expanding with the introduction of a pair of red wolves to an island in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s exciting to know that some are running free at last,” said David Robinette, the curator of mammals at the Audubon Zoo here.

The red wolf, smaller and more elusive than its gray cousin, once roamed the bottomlands of the South from the Carolinas to Texas. About 100 survive in captivity; the last few wild, purebred red wolves were captured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the late 1970s for captive breeding at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash.

Island Now Home

A few days ago, a pair was released at Horn Island, a wilderness area off the coast of Mississippi. The male was from Audubon and the female of the pair was raised at Point Defiance.

Since September, 1987, four pairs of wolves raised at Tacoma have been released in the Alligator River Refuge in coastal North Carolina. At least two pups were spotted last summer.

A second group of red wolves was reintroduced to the wild on Bulls Island, S.C., officials said.

In addition to wolves raised at Tacoma, the Audubon Zoo has added nine pups to the population and a female and four pups were sent to the Tacoma program over the weekend.

Wildlife officials hope the pair on Horn Island--now becoming acclimated in a sprawling penned area--will breed in February or early March and produce a litter in April.