There has never been a documented attack by a red wolf on a human, Madison says. Madison noted two hybrid litters were discovered last year and euthanized.Īnother concern was safety for humans and animals. That’s despite a 2019 National Academy of Sciences report confirming the red wolf was a “distinct” and “taxonomically valid” species. One man referred to the wolves as a “hybrid predator,” repeating a common belief here that all the animals are now mixed with coyotes. But no sooner had the floor been opened to questions than things got heated. They listened politely as Madison and others gave an update on the program. “We’re going to have to rely somewhat on private land for reintroduction.” “There’s not a large enough land mass of public land in the Southeast within the historic range that can fully support a viable red wolf population,” he says. But Madison says a single pack’s territory can be as much as 80 square miles (207 square kilometers), depending on prey availability. The two refuges’ combined 270,000 acres (109,265 hectares) - roughly 422 square miles (1,093 kilometers) - of federal land might sound like a lot. To cut down on road kills, officials have placed flashing signs at both ends of the Alligator River preserve to warn motorists on US 64 to watch out for endangered wolves and “drive with caution.”īut the biggest hurdle to red wolf recovery is space. Those coyotes get white collars, to further differentiate them from the wolves. “They’ll hold that space for the rest of their lives and they won’t allow other coyotes to move in, but they also can’t reproduce.” “They will continue to defend their territory,” he says. He bolts a wildlife camera about a foot up the trunk, secures it with a lock and cable, then uses pruning shears to cut down any brush that might obscure the camera’s view. Sutherland believes fears of “a wildlife disaster” are unfounded, and he’s out to prove it.īraving snakes and brushing feeder ticks from his clothes and gear, he kneels beside a pine tree on the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and starts drilling holes. Recent hunting leases posted online ranged from $861 for a 22-acre (8.9-hectare) property to $3,050 on 167 acres (67.5 hectares) with “everything deer need,” the site boasted. And that would eat into landowner profits.Īlthough exact numbers for the recovery zone are hard to come by, the wildlife commission says hunting generated $1 billion statewide last year. One of the big complaints around here is that the wolves will gobble up all the game, especially white-tailed deer, the main food source of Canis rufus. And that is only going to put them in more competition with what Akin calls the real “apex predator” - Homo sapiens. So, the wolves will have to roam farther and farther inland, into more densely populated areas. “Because within 50 years, a lot of the habitat areas that they’re looking at will very likely be underwater due to sea level rise or, certainly, underwater during the storm surge events such as such as hurricanes.” “They ought to be factoring that in,” says Williams, who works at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center in Massachusetts. The average elevation at Alligator River: about 3 feet (0.9 meters). If Greenland continues to melt at the current rate, the East Coast could see more than 3 feet (0.9 meters) of sea level rise in the next 50 years, says Jeffress Williams, a senior scientist emeritus with the U.S. The service has yet to identify suitable locations for other wild populations and it’s unclear whether the North Carolina wolves have a half century. The red wolf could be delisted by 2072, the agency concluded, providing “all actions are fully funded and implemented” and with “full cooperation of all partners.” The most recent draft called for spending of more than $256 million over the next 50 years.
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