Captive Breeding Credited for Survival of Red Wolf

During most of the 1970s, the American red wolf--which once roamed from the Atlantic Coast to Texas and from the Everglades as far north as the Ohio River--was precariously near extinction.

Now, in an ambitious effort to return the reclusive creature to the wild, two pairs bred in captivity have been conditioned since January in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, for release in the Appalachian highlands.

One pair, which became the parents of five pups on April 26, will be released from a holding pen in a few weeks.

Unlike the larger gray wolf, which hunts in packs and brings down animals as large as a moose, the red wolf is a shy, solitary creature that survives on rabbits, raccoons, fish and plants.

Often encouraged by bounties, generations of hunters had eradicated the red wolf in most areas of its natural range. The survivors, confined to western Louisiana and eastern Texas, were threatened by crossbreeding with coyotes.

Launching a desperate campaign to save the species, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1975 captured the remaining wolves and entrusted the animals’ survival to captive breeding programs.

Of about 400 animals brought in, many were wolf-coyote hybrids. Only 40 were picked out of the first lineup as wolves, and genetic tests showed that only 14 were the genuine article.

After the close brush with extinction, the red wolf has multiplied enough to give wildlife biologists new hope.

Since the Fish and Wildlife Service returned its first pair to the wild at the 180,000-acre Alligator River National Wildlife Preserve in North Carolina five years ago, officials have seen at least half a dozen pups born and survive outside captivity.

Despite occasional scraps with alligators, pickup trucks and a couple of mistaken wanderings into small towns, the Alligator River population has grown to about 15 and biologists expect four more litters this spring.

Altogether, the 14 survivors put into the recovery effort in 1975 have increased to about 130, of which 100 remain in captive breeding programs at zoos and on coastal islands off South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi.

“It is pretty clear that we can use captive stock to reintroduce the red wolf to the wild,” said Mike Phillips, a Fish and Wildlife biologist at Alligator River, “but we have a long, long way to go.”

Fish and Wildlife scientists estimate that a population of about 550 will be required to assure the wolf’s long-term survival.

From the experiment in the Smoky Mountains, they hope to learn whether a national park that has 8 million human visitors a year can be a suitable habitat and whether the wolves can be restored in an area in which coyotes have taken up residence.

The Alligator River preserve was chosen for the first release because it is free of coyotes.

With appropriate welcoming ceremonies, two pairs of red wolves arrived in January at Cades Cove on the western edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they remained in their 50-square-foot acclimation pens through their breeding season.

Phillips said that although the red wolf is shy, solitary and moves mainly at night, it is nevertheless more bold and conspicuous than its cousin, the coyote. “But,” he added, “the indications are that wolves and humans in the Southeast can coexist.”