In a recent lawsuit over a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, conservation groups have accused the federal Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) of hiding information about the only wild population of red wolves, which are located in eastern North Carolina. The wolves are managed under a 1987 FWS program to protect the critically endangered species, which was declared extinct in the wild in 1980.
This refusal to provide information is the latest in a series of hostile maneuvers toward the wild wolves by the FWS. It is especially troubling as, without updates on the state of the wild populations, conservation groups will be unable to hold the FWS to account if it fails to halt the decline of the wild population. NC State students who care about conservation should be concerned about these developments, which put another beloved North Carolina wolf pack in danger.
Issues with the FWS’s implementation began in 2015 when it announced plans to scale back the program, which had seen the wild population grow to over 100 individuals since their reintroduction in 1987. In 2016, a judge issued a temporary order to prevent the FWS and private landowners from capturing or killing the wolves, whose numbers had dropped to only 29. This order was made permanent in 2018, when a judge found that the FWS had broken the law with this shift in policy.
Earlier in 2018, the agency had also tried to decrease the protected range for the wolves by 90%, from five counties to one National Wildlife Refuge and a bombing range, but its public comment period invited over 108,000 responses, nearly all of which condemned the idea. Governor Roy Cooper also announced his opposition at the time, writing a letter which asked the government not to limit protections for the wolves.
The FWS hasn’t been the only opponent of the project. In 2012, the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission authorized nighttime hunting of coyotes, a move which caused a lawsuit claiming that this led to accidental red wolf deaths. The lawsuit was successful, leading to the outlawing of nighttime hunting and a new requirement for daytime coyote hunters to be permitted and report all kills to the agency.
Another front in the ongoing fight began when Congress asked for a study to determine whether the wild red wolves were still genetically distinct from coyotes, which they were known to mate with on occasion. If not, they would not fall under the Endangered Species Act, since coyotes are plentiful across the country. This ploy was also unsuccessful, as the study found that red wolves are their own species and that they will not breed with coyotes if another viable partner exists.
Red wolves — and their cousins the gray wolves — were once common throughout the southeastern US, but they were aggressively hunted in the 19th century, reducing their range to Texas and Louisiana. In the 1970s, the remaining wolves began breeding with coyotes, leading to an effort which recovered the last 14 pure-bred wolves to be protected in captivity.
In fact, largely due to competition from red wolves and cougars, coyotes weren’t common in North Carolina until 1990. Their ability to find human scraps and lack of competition have enabled them to spread widely and become a nuisance to humans across the state. The successful reintroduction of red wolves could help in pushing coyotes back into their natural Midwestern habitat, or at least limiting their numbers.
Fortunately, efforts are still ongoing to help the wild wolves, such as research by our own College of Veterinary Medicine to track and eliminate genetic diseases, such as blindness, that harm the wolves’ viability. In order to thrive, these wolves need protection from hunters and further scientific study, but neither can be guaranteed unless the public, including our own Wolfpack, continues to vote and comment against the FWS’s detrimental policies.
