Project restores red wolvesPublished 1:00am Tuesday, August 23, 2011Eastern North Carolina is an area known for its endangered wildlife species, including a red wolf.This species has faced a number of challenges over a years, as well as red-wolf advocacy organizations have worked to keep a animal from becoming extinct.Kim Wheeler, executive director of a Red Wolf Coalition Inc., said red wolves have faced problems for many years.Red-wolf replacement began in 1962 when a scientific community famous that a red wolf was in danger of extinction. At that time, a only known furious red-wolf population was in a Texas/Louisiana area, she said. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began studying a population in that area in 1968, as well as a first furious red wolves were placed into captivity in 1969 during Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash. The current furious population is 110 to130 animals. The furious red-wolf population is monitored by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Red Wolf Recovery Team, which has done so since a introduction of eight red wolves in 1987.Once removed from a wild, red wolves were considered extinct until a reintroduction of eight red wolves during a Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 1987. These red wolves were a first born in captivity to be released into a wild. The first litter of furious red wolves was born in a furious in 1988.The only furious population of red wolves in North Carolina is in a northeastern counties of Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell as well as Washington. Those wolves live on 1.7 million acres that include three wildlife refuges as well as private lands. The wolves inhabit a higher percentage of private land than public, so a Red Wolf Recovery Team is in touch frequently with landowners where red wolves reside.Some private landowners in eastern North Carolina object to red wolves inhabiting their properties, saying a wolves could attack livestock as well as pets.The Red Wolf Coalition is building a red wolf-viewing enclosure in a Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Ref! uge in T yrell County.Wheeler said efforts to keep red wolves alive are not limited to North Carolina.There are 40 species survival plan facilities across a United States. These locations serve as breeding as well as viewing facilities for a red wolf. The original goal of a red-wolf recovery plan was to have 220 animals in a wild, located in three opposite areas, as well as 330 animals in a captive population, she said. We currently have only one place of furious red wolves. The program continues to look for other replacement sites via a historical territory of a red wolf.Wheeler said red wolves are often mistaken for coyotes. She said it is open season for hunting coyotes in North Carolina, which increases a chances of a red wolf being mistaken for a coyote, shot as well as killed. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission gave out red wolf/coyote hunter-education cards to people taking hunter-education classes.Red wolves as well as coyotes often interbreed, creating red-wolf populations that are not purebred. Efforts are underneath way to address this problem.
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