Story and audio by Anna Grace Freebersyser
Photo by Will Melfi
Red wolves have been endangered for a long time. But this year, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking on the challenge of bringing back the wild population with a renewed sense of urgency. Here’s Anna Grace Freebersyser with the story.
February and March are mating season for red wolves. And while mating in the animal kingdom may seem fairly straightforward, it gets a whole lot more complicated with a species as endangered as red wolves.
They were declared extinct in the wild 40 years ago. The species lived on in captivity through a small group of wolves captured in the 1980s. All living red wolves today, including the 245 red wolves in captivity, are their descendents. That small of a genetic pool makes Chris Lasher’s job more complicated.
Chris Lasher works at the North Carolina Zoo and is in charge of the red wolf species survival plan or SSP, which means he coordinates the creation of breeding pairs among the red wolves in captivity.
LASHER: WE USE A LOT OF VERY SPECIFIC GENETIC SOFTWARE THAT ALLOWS US TO PUNCH AN ANIMAL’S NUMBER IN AND FIND THE BEST MATE FOR THAT ANIMAL. AND WE TAKE INTO ACCOUNT NOT ONLY WHO IS THE BEST GENETIC MATCH FOR THIS ANIMAL WHEN PUTTING A BREEDING PAIR TOGETHER, BUT HOW OLD ARE THEY? WHAT SIZE ARE THEY? ARE THEY BIG? ARE THEY SMALL? HAVE THEY BRED SUCCESSFULLY IN THE PAST? YOU KNOW, WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED WITHIN ONE OF OUR 40 INSTITUTIONS? WE HAVE INSTITUTIONS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Lasher explains that without a strong population in the wild, it is particularly important to keep the captive population healthy.
Lasher works closely with the Red Wolf Recovery program under U.S. Fish and Wildlife. The Red Wolf Recovery Program has been working to grow the wild population since the 1980’s when they first released 4 pairs of wolves into the wild.
Their efforts have seen mixed results. A little over a decade ago, the wild red wolf population grew as high as 130. But red wolves are also a controversial species. Introducing the red wolves back into the North Carolina ecosystem was a concern for some. Hunters worried they would cause a decrease in the population of deer. Farmers worried they may pose a threat to livestock. And, at times, Fish and Wildlife didn’t do enough to manage the species properly.
LASHER: WE KNOW WHEN THE RED WOLF PROGRAM WAS STARTED IN THE EASTERN PART OF NORTH CAROLINA, THERE WASN’T A LOT OF CONVERSATION GOING ON BETWEEN THE PEOPLE THAT LIVED THERE AND OUR GOVERNMENT THAT WAS PUTTING THE WOLVES OUT THERE. AND SOME OF THAT MISTRUST AND SOME OF THAT MISUNDERSTANDING HAPPENED RIGHT FROM THE GET-GO. SO WE MADE MISTAKES TOO, THE RED WOLF PROGRAM MADE MISTAKES, THE GOVERNMENT MADE MISTAKES.
Chris Lasher says that as they renew population building efforts in the wild, creating a better relationship with the public is going to be key.
LASHER: WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS WE NEED TO HEAR THEIR CONCERNS. WE NEED TO VALUE THEIR OPINION. AND THEN WE NEED TO WORK WITH THEM TO HAVE THEM UNDERSTAND THAT RED WOLVES AREN’T GOING TO BE DANGEROUS, AND WHAT THEIR CONCERNS ARE AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM.
Right now, Fish and Wildlife is primarily focused on the challenge of creating breeding pairs in the wild. For the first time since the red wolf recovery program started, no wild red wolves were born last year. With only 11 known red wolves in the wild due to gunshots, car accidents and natural deaths, the species needs a little help. Joe Madison, the head of the program, says that options are limited.
MADISON: WE DON’T HAVE A LOT TO CHOOSE FROM. OBVIOUSLY, WE DON’T PUT ONES FROM THE SAME FAMILY GROUP TOGETHER AS A PAIR, SO THAT PLAYS INTO IT AS WELL. RELATEDNESS AND AGE ARE REALLY THE TWO THAT ARE THE BIGGEST FACTORS.
Those slim parameters have led to the breeding plan for this year. The goal: 3 pairs placed together in time for mating season at Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife refuges in eastern North Carolina. So far, they’ve successively matched two pairs. But Madison says that, wild or captive, compatibility is the wild card they can’t control for.
MADISON: IT’S JUST LIKE PEOPLE, IT’S KIND OF A CRAPSHOOT, THE PAIR THAT WE HAD HERE OF CAPTIVE WOLVES. THEY WERE TOGETHER HERE, FOR I DON’T KNOW, TWO YEARS, MAYBE TWO AND A HALF. SHE NEVER LET HIM IN THE DEN THE ENTIRE TIME. WE HAD TO PUT A SEPARATE DEN BOX IN FOR HIM.
That pair of captive wolves was kept at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to help educate the public. They didn’t have the survival of the species riding on how well they got along. For the wild pairs, Madison is hoping they’ve got some love matches this spring. He believes that despite all the hurdles, the population can come back.
