I mourn the loss of things my children and I will never see, whether it’s the mass migration of passenger pigeons or the white blossoms of the American chestnut covering the mountains. Among these wounds, there is a lot of hope, a hope that can be seen, heard and felt. For example, one can travel to the Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains to hear the majestic, piercing cry of an elk bugle. This species was once lost in our mountains but is beginning to recover and reclaim its native land.

But I can’t ignore the silence of the animals you no longer hear in the Smokies. Only a few decades ago, you could still hear the howls and cries of the red wolf. Although the red wolf has been silenced in the Smokies, it can still be heard in the wilds of eastern North Carolina. This marshy fortress is the only place in the world where endangered red wolves roam freely.

The red wolf nearly became extinct in the 1950s due to aggressive predator control programs. The red wolf population was so severely decimated that it was declared extinct in the wild in 1980. In a last ditch effort, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rounded up all remaining red wolves to replenish an “experimental population” .

In 1987, a breeding population of red wolves was released at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on a remote coastal peninsula in eastern North Carolina. The wolves that were released consisted of only four mating pairs. From this first generation, the population now numbers more than 100 animals.

As the population grew, the recovery program came under increasing scrutiny and attack from unlikely enemies. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission recently passed a series of resolutions aimed at undermining red wolf protections and outright destroying the species. They say it’s too difficult, too expensive, too controversial and too late to protect the red wolf. I say, welcome to conservation.

Too difficult ?

Conservation is inherently challenging, but when did that stop us? What if we had given up the grizzly, the gray wolf or the bald eagle? Can you imagine our national symbol being relegated to a simple image on the back of a coin? The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is only interested in a future without the red wolf. In my view, the real challenge is to revamp the good old boy polishing the apple politics that permeates these agencies tasked with serving the public.

Too expensive?

In 2007, the last year the data was compiled, a total of $1.4 million in federal funds was spent on red wolf conservation efforts. That’s less than 1% of what was spent on all endangered mammals combined. Compare that to the bald eagle, a recovered and delisted species, which cost $9.5 million.

And guess how much the state of North Carolina spent on red wolf recovery in 2007? A paltry and embarrassing $1,523. That’s about $15 per wild red wolf for the whole year. I guess the NC Wildlife Resources Commission spends over $1,500 a year on coffee and donuts for their meetings.

Too controversial?

When European settlers began their war on nature in the United States, the only good predator was a dead predator. We thought with fewer predators there was more game. We soon learned that ecology is not so simple as disease has spread, rangelands have turned to dust and forests have been stripped of new growth.

Past predator eradication policies have damaged ecosystems and tipped the balance of nature in drastic directions. Nowhere have these lessons been more evident than in the East. We have lost almost all of our predators and even our prized game species. Today we celebrate the return of white-tailed deer, wild turkey and now elk. But we’ve only just come to recognize the incredible value of predators like wolves and cougars to these game populations and to entire ecosystems. For many agencies, however, outdated attitudes toward predators persist.

Too late?

“We are doomed.” “Things have gotten so bad that we are going to have to live with it. “Species are disappearing all the time with no real consequences.” I’ve heard all these statements from conservation professionals. It’s understandable to sometimes feel that way. Aldo Leopold, one of the founding fathers of conservation, wrote: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds”.

Too often, however, we allow these wounds to fester rather than heal. Many conservation interests today embrace pessimism, focusing on the scale of the challenge rather than the size of the solution.

It’s not too late for the 100 Red Wolves of Eastern North Carolina. Do you think the red wolf wants to roam the confines of an enclosure alone as the last member of its kind? Is this the future we want for the most endangered wolf in the world? The red wolf will fight for its existence, and so will we. It’s never too late to try. We must not lose hope, because it is a wound that we can heal.

—

Why is the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) proposing to end the Red Wolf Recovery Program, and what can be done?

In January 2015, the NCWRC passed two resolutions calling on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to end the red wolf recovery program and capture and remove all red wolves from private lands. This resolution threatens the very existence of the species. More than 27 years of recovery would be interrupted and the species would once again become extinct in the wild. The reasons given by the NCWRC are that the recovery program was a failure, that wolves are hybridizing with coyotes, and that rising sea levels will force wolves to settle on private land. The latter is ironic since the state of North Carolina does not recognize the reality of climate change and has passed a law banning any discussion of sea level rise until 2016.

Public feedback is crucial. Howl for Wolves: Let the US Fish and Wildlife Service know that red wolves are worth protecting and the recovery program should be continued. Email your comments to Cynthia Dohner, Southeast Regional Director for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at [email protected] and Dan Ashe, director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, at [email protected]

Is there a chance of ever bringing the red wolf back to the Smokies and/or southern Appalachia?

Alligator River represents the only place where red wolves have been successfully reintroduced into the wild. Other reintroduction programs have been launched but have failed. Red wolves were released into Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the early 1990s, but were recaptured after the wolves left park boundaries in search of prey. Fearing conflicts with neighboring cattle ranchers, the program ended in 1998.

For the red wolf to return to southern Appalachia, human attitudes must change. With rising sea levels threatening the coastal population, the best hope for the red wolves is to return to the vast tracts of public lands in western North Carolina.

Do wolves and coyotes interbreed? Are these shy wolves a good thing or a bad thing?

While wolves and coyotes share much of their genes, they are classified as separate species and managed as such. For most of their history, coyotes and red wolves did not interbreed because most coyotes inhabited the western states and their migrations were suppressed by healthy wolf populations. As wolves were exterminated from their original range, the range of the coyote expanded. With wolves becoming increasingly isolated, healthy wolf pack dynamics collapsed, and wolves looking for mates began to interbreed with coyotes. This interbreeding caused the genetic introgression of coyotes into red wolf populations and produced coyote/wolf hybrids sometimes referred to as coy-wolves. Only a healthy population of red wolves that is allowed to thrive can overcome the biological invasion of coyotes.

RALEIGH, CN– After years of litigation and advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday night that it is revitalizing efforts to save the red wolf from extinction. During an online meeting, the Service announced that it was redoubling its efforts to ensure that the red wolf not only survives in the wild, but makes a full recovery.

“It’s encouraging to see that the Biden administration has found the political will to save and restore the wild red wolf population on North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula,” said Carolina staff attorney Perrin de Jong. from North to Center. “We thank the brave new leadership of the Home Office for providing this course correction.”

The agency is committed to meeting almost all of the major requests the Center has made to the Biden administration for this program, including:

• Resume robust releases of red wolves into the wild population;
• Use a local coyote neutering program to protect red wolf genetics;
• Deployment of a puppy fostering program to increase the size of litters of wild red wolves;
• Rewriting of the red wolf recovery plan, including an exploration of new reintroduction sites for wild red wolves;
• Take steps to protect the safety of wild red wolves, including public awareness programs to build goodwill among local residents in the recovery area.

Last year the Biden administration has officially abandoned a red wolf management rule proposed by the Trump administration that would have reduced its protected range to 10% of the current size and legalized the killing of any wolf that wandered off federal lands.

Red wolves were once abundant in the Southeast, but the species is now the most endangered canine in the world. Today, only eight known wild red wolves remain in the wild, surviving in five sparsely populated eastern North Carolina counties. The last known litter of red wolf was born in the wild in 2018.

“To stabilize and recover the wild population, the Service will need to not only begin, but maintain robust reintroductions of red wolves on an ongoing basis,” de Jong said.

In 2020 and 2021, seven adult red wolves were released into the wild population. In 2021 alone, seven Red Wolves have been confirmed killed by collisions with vehicles, gunfire and unknown causes. Gunshots are the leading cause of death for wild red wolves, followed by collisions with vehicles.

“To fulfill the promise of the Endangered Species Act and truly restore the red wolf to the Southeast, the Service will need to not only save the North Carolina population, but also restore the species to the many sites worthy people in the region who can support it,” said de Jong.

Twenty thousand acres of prime habitat in five southeastern states have been identified as potential reintroduction sites for the species.

After years of litigation and advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday night that it is revitalizing efforts to save the red wolf from extinction. During an online meeting, the Service announced that it was redoubling its efforts to ensure that the red wolf not only survives in the wild, but makes a full recovery.

“It’s encouraging to see that the Biden administration has found the political will to save and restore the wild red wolf population on North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula,” said Carolina staff attorney Perrin de Jong. from North to Center. “We thank the brave new leadership of the Home Office for providing this course correction.”

The agency is committed to meeting almost all of the major requests the Center has made to the Biden administration for this program, including:

• Resume robust releases of red wolves into the wild population;
• Use a local coyote neutering program to protect red wolf genetics;
• Deployment of a puppy fostering program to increase the size of litters of wild red wolves;
• Rewriting of the red wolf recovery plan, including an exploration of new reintroduction sites for wild red wolves;
• Take steps to protect the safety of wild red wolves, including public awareness programs to build goodwill among local residents in the recovery area.

Last year the Biden administration has officially abandoned a red wolf management rule proposed by the Trump administration this would have reduced its protected range to 10% of the current size and legalized the killing of any wolves that wander off federal lands.

Red wolves were once abundant in the Southeast, but the species is now the most endangered canine in the world. Today, only eight known wild red wolves remain in the wild, surviving in five sparsely populated eastern North Carolina counties. The last known litter of red wolf was born in the wild in 2018.

“To stabilize and recover the wild population, the Service will need to not only begin, but maintain robust reintroductions of red wolves on an ongoing basis,” de Jong said.

In 2020 and 2021, seven adult red wolves were released into the wild population. In 2021 alone, seven Red Wolves have been confirmed killed by collisions with vehicles, gunfire and unknown causes. Gunshots are the leading cause of death for wild red wolves, followed by collisions with vehicles.

“To fulfill the promise of the Endangered Species Act and truly restore the red wolf to the Southeast, the Service will need to not only save the North Carolina population, but also restore the species to the many sites worthy people in the region who can support it,” said de Jong.

Twenty thousand acres of prime habitat in five southeastern states have been identified as potential sites for the reintroduction of the species.

The number of coyote sightings in Ottawa has nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020, according to the City of Ottawa’s By-Laws and Regulations Department.

There were 221 complaints reported in 2019, rising to 438 in 2020 and 476 in 2021. There have already been 33 such reports in the first three weeks of 2022.

The National Capital Commission (NCC), meanwhile, reported 53 sightings in 2019 and 47 in 2020, dropping to 33 in 2021.

These figures come with a few caveats: a number of reports have been made by different callers regarding the same animal, some of the calls are from residents seeking general coyote information, and others are about a deceased coyote found on a road.

They are more afraid of us than we are of them.— Jason Pink, National Capital Commission

Roger Chapman, director of municipal and regulatory services for the city, says the number is often highest between January and March when snow covers the animals’ usual food sources and they are forced to look elsewhere for food.

What to do when dating

The city and the NCC partner in much of their work around coyote tracking and collaborate on a blog about how to coexist.

NCC senior conservation officer Jason Pink said centuries-old wildlife recommendations also apply to coyotes.

“It’s pretty much the same when you meet a coyote [as] when you encounter a bear,” he said.

This means people should leave animals alone whenever possible. If, however, someone is being followed by a coyote, they must scream and appear larger. They can also throw objects in the general direction of the animal.

“They are more afraid of us than we are of them.”

Although we hear of a few rare cases of attack, coyotes are generally more dangerous to pets than to humans.

Earlier this year, an Ottawa police investigation found a string of suspicious cat deaths were perpetrated by coyotes.

Pink said owners should always keep small dogs nearby and on a leash.

In the event of a coyote encounter, owners should pick up their dog and back away, facing the coyote. They should never turn their backs and run, he said.

‘Tools in your toolbox’

Lesley Sampson, founding executive director of Coyote Watch Canada, some experts recommend wearing a whistle to deter animals, but Sampson says unfamiliar sounds are more effective.

Urban coyotes, she said, are accustomed to a wide range of sounds, including machinery, car horns and even whistles. Often the best way to deter them is to use a stimulus they’re not used to, like shaking a tin can full of coins or opening an umbrella.

There’s also a technique she calls the “trash bag method” which involves filling a bag with air before breaking it open to make a scary noise.

“It’s like anything – it’s better when you have tools in your toolbox,” she said.

Sampson said the animals are easier to track in the snow.

The telltale footprints help volunteers at the wildlife nonprofit keep tabs on urban families of coyotes who need ‘aversion conditioning’, the practice of using natural deterrents humanely to remove an animal from an area.

Surprised to see this dog/wolf/coyote on my morning run.

Anyone know what animal this is?#ScaredRunner #UrbanSurprise pic.twitter.com/gMlPpBSzgC

—@MathieuFleury

Skin Prices

Pink said coyote numbers in Ottawa don’t appear to be increasing, but there may be more sightings because the animals adapt to city life and become more active during the day.

Stan Gehrt, principal investigator of the Urban Coyote Research Project based in Chicago, Illinois, said cities in eastern North America have seen an increase in urban coyote populations in recent years.

Gehrt said no one knows for sure why this is happening, but he cited a decline in the market value of pelts overseas that has deterred coyote hunting and trapping in rural North America. The resulting rural population boom may have pushed young coyotes to urban centers.

Keeping a healthy distance from this urban population is key to coexistence, Sampson says, because the main cause of conflict is when people feed animals.

“They get to know the different hotspots where people are constantly leaving food. You take care of that, and a lot of encounters and conflicts go away,” she said.

“They are capable, intelligent and creative foragers and hunters. They don’t need our handouts.”

Ottawa morning8:08Coyote sightings on the rise in Ottawa

An expert offers advice on what to do if you spot one. 8:08

A 1982 Piper Saratoga plane landed at Asheville Regional Airport on November 20 to deliver an endangered red wolf and take a load of shelter dogs for adoption in the north.

The red wolf, named Ben, was born at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York, in 2018 and has spent the last three years living on display with his mother, father and siblings. Now he will be residing at the WNC Nature Center in Asheville, where he will soon meet his new companion and hopefully have a few puppies of his own.

Red wolves are extremely endangered in the wild, with only a dozen left in the small area of ​​eastern North Carolina where they have been reintroduced. However, there are 241 red wolves living under human care in places like the WNC Nature Center, making these facilities an important part of the species’ survival. The WNC Nature Center first exhibited wolves in 1990, and between 1996 and 2014, 13 puppies were born there.

Red wolves Karma and Garnet had resided at the Nature Center since fall 2018, but failed to breed, leading the Zoos and Aquariums Association Species Survival Plan to recommend that a new breeding pair is transferred to the Nature Center. In September, Garnet visited the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri and Karma will be leaving in the spring. After Ben completes a quarantine period, he and Karma will be placed together for company until a new female is transferred to Asheville.

While there is a long way to go for the species’ ultimate recovery, WNC Nature Center animal curator Erin Oldread is cautiously optimistic about the role of the Nature Center.

“We are proud to be a part of the Species Survival Plan for red wolves,” she said, “and we hope that our new red wolves can successfully breed in the future to have offspring that could potentially be released into the wild and help increase the population.

The plane, piloted by Michael Schneider, founder and executive director of Pilots To The Rescue, did not leave empty-handed. Schneider returned to New Jersey with dogs from Aiken, South Carolina, who were in danger of being euthanized.

A 1982 Piper Saratoga plane landed at Asheville Regional Airport on November 20 to deliver an endangered red wolf and take a load of shelter dogs for adoption in the north.

The red wolf, named Ben, was born at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York, in 2018 and has spent the last three years living on display with his mother, father and siblings. Now he will be residing at the WNC Nature Center in Asheville, where he will soon meet his new companion and hopefully have a few puppies of his own.

Red wolves are extremely endangered in the wild, with only a dozen left in the small area of ​​eastern North Carolina where they have been reintroduced. However, there are 241 red wolves living under human care in places like the WNC Nature Center, making these facilities an important part of the species’ survival. The WNC Nature Center first exhibited wolves in 1990, and between 1996 and 2014, 13 puppies were born there.

Red wolves Karma and Garnet had resided at the Nature Center since fall 2018, but failed to breed, leading the Zoos and Aquariums Association Species Survival Plan to recommend that a new breeding pair is transferred to the Nature Center. In September, Garnet visited the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri and Karma will be leaving in the spring. After Ben completes a quarantine period, he and Karma will be placed together for company until a new female is transferred to Asheville.

While there is a long way to go for the species’ ultimate recovery, WNC Nature Center animal curator Erin Oldread is cautiously optimistic about the role of the Nature Center.

“We are proud to be a part of the Species Survival Plan for red wolves,” she said, “and we hope that our new red wolves can successfully breed in the future to have offspring that could potentially be released into the wild and help increase the population.

The plane, piloted by Michael Schneider, founder and executive director of Pilots To The Rescue, did not leave empty-handed. Schneider returned to New Jersey with dogs from Aiken, South Carolina, who were in danger of being euthanized.

Sightings of wildlife in Craven County are nothing new, especially in the fall or winter when searching for a food source, experts say.

But when is it appropriate to report a sighting of wildlife such as a coyote, black bear, deer or fox?

Here’s when to report wildlife and how to stay safe around them, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Commission.

Not every wildlife sighting needs to be reported

A recent Facebook post on the Trent Woods Police Department page indicated that coyotes may be in the area.

“We had some sightings,” said Chief Tony Lee of the Trent Woods Police Department. “It’s not something we see all the time. We know there are probably a few coyotes around town based on what people have told us.”

A gift and a promise to keep a critically endangered species alive has arrived in western North Carolina. The WNC Nature Center welcomed the red wolf M2235, also known as Ben, to Asheville on November 20, the centre’s marketing director Kate Frost said in a statement. Ben was airlifted to Asheville Regional Airport from New Jersey aboard a 1982 Piper Saratoga by pilot Michael Schneider, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Pilots To The Rescue . “We’re best known for our work with cats and dogs,” Schneider said, “but it’s a real privilege to be able to transfer an endangered species like this red wolf.” Rebecca Bose, curator from the Wolf Conservation Center, in South Salem, New York, came on the trip to Asheville to ensure the safe transport of the Red Wolf. Ben was born at WCC in 2018. For the past three years he had been living from the exhibition with his mother, father and siblings. Once Ben is successfully quarantined, he will be placed with another wolf, Karma, for company until a new mating partner is transferred to the WNC Nature Center. Karma will be moving from the center to the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri, in the spring. Erin Oldread, animal curator at the WNC Nature Center, explained why animals like Ben are so precious. In October, US Fish and Wildlife estimated that there were only 15 to 17 red wolves living in the wild in eastern North Carolina. “Most people don’t realize how critically endangered red wolves are or how they can only be found in the wild in one place in the world,” Oldread said. She said there were 241 red wolves living under human care in places like the WNC Nature Center. The WNC Nature Center has been involved in the US red wolf recovery program since 1990 when they first began exhibiting red wolves. Between 1996 and 2014, 13 puppies were born at the Nature Center. Donations can be made online at www.wildwnc.org/donate or mailed to Friends of the WNC Nature Center, PO Box 19151, Asheville, NC, 28815. Donations of $ 100 or more will be matched up to $ 2,500 from Weiler Woods for Wildlife, a red wolf conservation partner with the Friends of the WNC Center, until the end of the year.

Asheboro, NC – June 30, 2021 – The North Carolina Zoo is excited to announce the names of the six Cubs (four females, two males) born in the guest sight habitat of first-time parents Flint (male) and Sassy.

The public was invited to vote in an online poll from a list of names provided by the zoo’s red wolf keepers. The names are based on rivers in the southeastern United States where critically endangered red wolves lived. The Names Survey received over 6,500 responses.

The names chosen are Eno, Harper, Pearl, Warrior, Fisher, Catawba.

The names to choose from were Catawba, Edisto, Haw, Harper, Warrior, Eno, Fisher, Pearl, Waccamaw, and Swannanoa.

The puppies were born as part of the zoo’s red wolf breeding program. There were three litters totaling 12 puppies born during three days from April 28 to 30 (the names of the puppies from the other two litters will be announced shortly). This brings the number of red wolves currently in the zoo’s breeding program to 35, making it the second largest pack in the United States after the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.

There are only 15-20 red wolves left in the wild and they are all found in eastern North Carolina. The red wolf is considered the most endangered canine in the world.

Once common throughout the Southeastern United States, wolves nearly became extinct in the late 1960s, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service launched an aggressive conservation effort – the American Red Wolf Recovery Program – that has leads to new ways of tracking and protecting the species. These efforts have led to an increase in the number of wild red wolves in eastern North Carolina, but changes in the management of the recovery program have resulted in a further decline in the wild population in recent years.

The zoo has been part of the American Red Wolf Recovery Program since 1994 and has led the successful efforts to have the American Red Wolf become part of the Association of Zoo and Aquariums’ SAFE (Saving Species From Extinction) program.

AZA SAFE Species programs aim to protect endangered species around the world. For more information visit https://www.aza.org/aza-safe.

To learn more about the North Carolina Zoo and our Red Wolf Program, please visit www.nczoo.org

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Go Ask Mom Editor

Asheboro, North Carolina – The six Red Cubs born this spring at the North Carolina Zoo now have their names, thanks to a participatory vote.

The four females and the two males will be called Eno, Harper, Pearl, Warrior, Fisher, Catawba.

The names, appointed by the zoo’s red wolf keepers and voted on by the public, are based on rivers in the Southeastern United States where critically endangered red wolves lived.

Between April 28 and 30, three litters totaling 12 puppies were born at the zoo as part of its red wolf breeding program. The names of the other puppies will be announced soon, the zoo reports. The zoo now has 35 red wolves, making it the second largest pack in the United States after the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.

The newly named red wolf puppies were born into the public wolf habitat, giving zoo visitors a rare chance to see the puppies for a limited time. Most of them were born in the breeding area of ​​the red wolf, closed to the public.

Once common throughout the Southeastern United States, wolves nearly became extinct in the late 1960s, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service launched an aggressive conservation effort – the American Red Wolf Recovery Program – that has leads to new ways of tracking and protecting the species, according to the zoo. These efforts have led to an increase in the number of wild red wolves in eastern North Carolina, but changes in the management of the recovery program have resulted in a further decline in the wild population in recent years. There are only 15-20 red wolves left in the wild, and they are all found in eastern North Carolina. The red wolf is considered the most endangered canine in the world.

The zoo is in Asheboro, about 90 minutes from the Triangle.