North Carolina Wants Feds to End Red Wolf Rewilding Program

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http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/north_carolina_wants_feds_to_end_red_wolf_rewilding_program/

North Carolina Wants Feds to End Red Wolf Rewilding Program
BY JOHN SOLTES – FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Only 100 of this reclusive, endangered canid remain in the wild

The red wolf, an endangered species with fewer than 100 individuals left in the wild and approximately 200 in captive breeding facilities around the country, is a striking, smart-looking canid with pointy ears tinged an autumn crimson. Larger than coyotes and smaller than gray wolves, red wolves have impossibly slender legs and eyes that can be deep and sorrowful. Seeing one up close — a rarity that probably requires a visit to a breeding facility in the winter months — is a humbling experience. The animals stay to themselves, a connected pack with no desire to add any human siblings, and only occasionally perk up their ears — perhaps a sign that they hear the trespasser, sense the presence, and prefer life without instigation

By the 1960s, the red wolf population had been decimated by intensive predator control programs and habitat loss. Today’s only wild population can be found in Washington, Beaufort, Tyrrell, Hyde and Dare counties in North Carolina, not too far from the world-famous beaches of the Outer Banks. The first rewilding of red wolves began in 1987 in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina, thanks to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). These releases have helped a population that numbered as few as 17 back then grow to healthier, though still small, numbers.

However, because of several issues in North Carolina, including hybridization with coyotes and concern from local landowners, the future of the red wolf in the Southeast remains uncertain. Recently, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission adopted resolutions calling for the end of the red wolf reintroduction project in the state and for the USFWS to capture and remove individual animals and subsequent offspring that were released on private land.

If the resolutions are fully realized, red wolves could become biologically extinct in the wild again.

The USFWS is expected to issue its decision on the matter in March, and all possibilities remain on the table. “We still haven’t made our decision at this point on what to do with the nonessential, experimental population there in North Carolina,” said Tom MacKenzie, spokesperson for the Southeast Region of the USFWS.

MacKenzie said there are two main options: to modify the program in some way or completely remove the wolves from North Carolina. “And kind of anything in the middle might be a consideration as well,” he added.

The recovery program was one of the first of its kind after the Endangered Species Act became federal law in 1973. Although it has been successful at rebuilding the population, there have been trials and tribulations. Perhaps the largest challenge to the red wolves is their canid cousins, the coyotes. MacKenzie said if the timing is right, red wolves and coyotes can mate. This creates genetic problems, especially for a population that is trying to rebound from so few survivors in the first place.

To combat the hybridization, the Fish and Wildlife Service have tried a placeholder strategy that calls for sterilizing coyotes, and then returning them to their territories until they can be replaced with wolves. “[T]here’s research being done on that to show if it’s a viable option for this population or potential future populations,” MacKenzie said.

Another problem involves humans. In the first two months of 2015, two red wolves have died from “non-management-related actions,” which means they were killed by private traps. Nine red wolves died from 2012 to 2014 from vehicle hits, and 21 perished from suspected or confirmed gunshots. “[T]hose gunshot deaths… really did have an impact on the red wolf population, particularly because those were breeding males and breeding females that were being shot,” MacKenzie said. “And when those are broken up, those bonds, then other coyotes would move in, and that would mean that breeding pair was basically done. And that affected population, procreation, and the numbers.”

The shooting of red wolves is likely related to the fact they look similar to coyotes, especially at night when coyote hunting often takes place. In 2014, the state made the decision to halt coyote hunting in the five red wolf counties, but this caused much ire among local communities in North Carolina. Earlier this year, the state Wildlife Resources Commission approved temporary rules for conditional daytime coyote hunting with an authorized permit.

Besides the hybridization and disagreements with the local community, a contentious point has been the USFWS’ decision to release red wolves on private land. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has characterized these private-land releases as “unauthorized.”

“[Releases on private land] did occur, and that was stopped here about last year,” MacKenzie said. “And by unauthorized, that’s probably a bit strong language because, according to the red wolf folks, they would only release wolves on land where the folks said it was okay to do so…. We didn’t make like a public announcement that we were doing this, so that’s why they would say it’s unauthorized.”

MacKenzie said the Service will still protect the red wolf, regardless of the decision in March. He also noted that, although there are sufficient numbers to keep the species alive in captivity, the long-term objective is to create three self-sustaining populations around the Southeast region in the red wolves’ former range. So far, there is only one.

2014 Management Review



A recent report released by the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), a nonprofit focused on wildlife education, has been a driving factor in determining the fate of North Carolina’s red wolves. The report, completed in November 2014, contained several suggestions for managers.

“[T]he Fish and Wildlife Service, their scientists know what they’re doing,” said Steve Williams, president of WMI. “They have a good understanding, I think, of the biology of the red wolves. Where we thought [the program] was lacking a bit was the interaction with the public, and that’s really a very important aspect of a recovery program, especially with a predator. People either love them, or they don’t love them.” In this case, the report found that many people in the region do not love red wolves, and were “not strongly in favor” of the program.

“There’s a saying in wildlife management: We all get into it because we love wildlife, and we end up spending 95 percent of our time with people issues and about 5 percent with wildlife issues,” Williams added.

During the review process, Williams learned that the local communities in eastern North Carolina haven’t always had to deal with predators. In the 1980s, he said, coyotes were not an issue, and red wolves hadn’t been reintroduced yet. Today, both canids are present, and people are concerned about public safety, livestock, and impact on other wildlife like deer.

“The injunction to stop coyote hunting in those five counties, I think… that accelerated some of the people that were against the program,” Williams said. “Our sense of perception was some of the people that lived in that area, particularly the property owners, felt as though they had no way of protecting their livestock, their property, in some cases their kids, should coyotes or red wolves or the hybrids show up.… It’s sort of the American spirit that [you] should be able to do things to protect your property and your livelihood, and with the injunction, the court said, ‘No, you can’t hunt coyotes. You can’t shoot red wolves.’”

He added, “In this case, perception was reality for a lot of folks down there.”

Eastern North Carolina, Williams said, is also unique because of the amount of federal land. With a national seashore, plus the refuge, a lot of land is seemingly off-limits to locals. Some activities that their grandparents or great-grandparents may have enjoyed — running vehicles on the beach in certain areas, for example — are now restricted, and in peoples’ minds, the red wolves have become connected to these regulations.

“It had nothing to do with red wolves,” Williams said. “It’s the government intervention in private landowners’ lives, and all that stuff added up and kind of came to a boil. Then you throw in the red wolves and the coyotes and not being able to hunt them, all that stuff, it riled people, no question about it.”

The perception-reality debate is one that has dogged wolf recovery for a long time. From stories of Little Red Riding Hood to The Grey, a Liam Neeson movie where wolves snarl in the darkness beyond the campfire’s glow, this iconic American animal is often portrayed as a vicious, blood-hungry canid. Wolf conservationists argue that wolves are misunderstood.

“It goes back to colonial times,” Williams said. “There were red wolves from Texas to Pennsylvania, east of the Mississippi, and there’s a reason that there aren’t anymore because people were concerned, scared.… They were killed, and trapped, and poisoned, and gone, which is unfortunate. But that’s part of the history of our country.”

According to the report, the USFWS also broke some of the rules it had set up at the program’s inception. One of them: If wolves moved beyond the original release region, the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, and landowners spotted the endangered animals, the Service was supposed to return the animals to the refuge. This hasn’t always happened, and today nearly 60 percent of the red wolves occupy private land. Additionally, under the Endangered Species Act, the wolves were not supposed to be released onto private property, regardless of the property owners’ consent. However, over time, such releases did take place.

Advocacy Efforts

The Red Wolf Coalition, based in Columbia, NC, was created by a red wolf biologist who saw the need for a nongovernmental organization to conduct educational outreach and advocacy efforts in local communities. The organization even has a resident pair of red wolf ambassadors, captive born and bred, that are used for educational programs.

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