Our Ambassadors The red wolves housed at CA&NC are on loan from the US Fish and Wildlife Services as a part of the federal species survival plan (SSP) for the red wolves. The red wolf is a critically endangered mammal and efforts are being made to restore this species to its original habitat. CA&NC has three enclosures which house the wolves, one is off exhibit and designated for breeding, the other two usually contain two to three wolves for public viewing; occasionally a breeding pair may be placed on exhibit as well per the SSP recommendations. Our red wolf ambassadors enjoy high quality dog chow and a variety of meat supplements. They can sometimes be found with a deer or beaver carcass, donated by legal sources.
Historical Range
The red wolf’s historic range covered the southeastern portion of the United States, reaching as far west as Texas and north to Illinois.
Current Range
One managed wild population of approximately 200 Red Wolves in the Outer Banks area of North Carolina covering 1.7 million acres of private and public land known as Alligator River. Additional site at St. Vincent’s Island National Wildlife Refuge near Apalachicola, FL.
Habitat
Preferred habitat is warm, moist, and densely vegetated; although they were also present in pine forest, bottom land hardwood forests, coastal prairies, and marshes.
Size
4 - 5 feet in length from tip of nose to tip of tail; approximately 26 inches tall at the shoulder; 40 - 75 lbs
Appearance
Red Wolves are mostly brown and buff colored with some black along their backs, often with a reddish, cinnamon color on their ears, head and legs. Red wolves are smaller than gray wolves and larger than coyotes. They have tall pointed ears and long legs with large feet.
Eating Habits
White-tailed deer, raccoons, and smaller mammals such as rabbits, rodents, and nutria.
Reproduction
Breeding season is once per year, January through March. 1 - 9 pups are born 63 days later in April or May. Their eyes open at about 10 days, and it is another few weeks before the sire and dam allow the pups to emerge from the den. Pups remain with their parents until they find a mate of their own, usually at about 2 years of age. Red wolves are generally monogamous, and will remain with the same mate for many years.
Life Span
7 - 8 years in the wild; Up to 15 in captivity
Interesting Facts
Some credit can be given to red wolves for control of nuisance species. Two dietary studies show that red wolves are known to feed on deer, nutria, raccoons, marsh rabbits, and small rodents. We can assume red wolves contribute to the control of these nuisance species with respect to crop damage by deer, rabbits and rodents; with respect to levee, road and farm equipment damage via nutria; and with respect to predation upon nesting ground birds (quail, turkey, etc.) and sea turtle nests by raccoons.
The red wolf is an umbrella species. Ecosystems which support and conserve Red Wolves are likely ecosystems which maintain a diversity of other wildlife, plants, habitat and landscape features. This creates a balanced ecosystem, its predators included, which means relatively healthy prey populations (deer, etc.) available for hunting, wildlife viewing and outdoor recreation, diversity and other functions on the landscape. In the same respect, red wolves help control over-population of prey species. There is data showing evidence that sea turtles’ hatching success increases when there are lower numbers of nest raiders like raccoons. Duke University has a research study, in partnership with Defenders of Wildlife, evaluating “ecosystem services” - air and water purification, flood control, climate regulation and plant pollination - provided by conserving red wolf habitat in North Carolina.
The following is from a quarterly report written by David Rabon, Jr., PhD, Recovery Coordinator for the Red Wolf Recovery Program.
The Red Wolf is one of the most endangered canids in the world. Once
occurring throughout the eastern and south-central United States, Red
Wolves were decimated by predator-control programs and the loss and
alternation of habitats. By the 1970s, these activities had reduced the
Red Wolf population to a small area along the Gulf coast of Texas and
Louisiana. To protect the species from extinction, the US Fish and
Wildlife Service initiated efforts to locate and capture as many Red
Wolves as possible for the purposes of establishing a program to breed
the species in captivity and one day reintroduce the species into a
portion of its former range. More than 400 canids were captured in
coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana, but only 17 were identified as Red
Wolves. 14 of these Red Wolves would become the founding members of
the captive breeding program and the ancestors of all the Red Wolves
existing today.
The first litter of Red Wolves born in captivity occurred in 1977.
Within a few years Red Wolves were successfully reproducing in
captivity, allowing the US Fish and Wildlife Service to consider
reintroducing the species in the wild. In 1987, four male-female pairs
of Red Wolves were released in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
(ARNWR) in northeastern North Carolina and designated as an experimental
population. Since then, the experimental population has grown and he
recovery area expanded to include 4 national wildlife refuges, a
Department of Defense bombing range, state owned lands, and private
lands encompassing about 1.7 million acres. However, interbreeding with
the coyote (a species not native to North Carolina) has been recognized
as a threat affecting the restoration of Red Wolves. Currently,
adaptive management efforts are making progress in reducing the threat
of coyotes to the Red Wolf population in northeastern North Carolina.
Other threats, such as habitat fragmentation, disease, and premature
mortality, are of concern in the restoration of Red Wolves. Efforts to
reduce the threats are presently being explored.
Historical Range
Current Range
