There are many struggles that face the wild red wolf population at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR). I have already mentioned gunshot mortality and domestic dog diseases as two of the main problems that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) must address on a regular basis. However, another pressing issue is the importation of coyotes for the practice of coyote hunting, which can threaten the red wolf population in more ways than one. One of the initialRead more
Posts tagged: #coyote
Migrating coyotes claim red wolf territories
In my previous post about red wolves, I discussed how the gunshot mortality on the wild population has risen significantly in the past few years. Sadly, it is believed that some of these shootings are intentional, but another reason for the increase is because juvenile red wolves are similar in size to coyotes, and leads to mistaken identity by hunters. This problem may be amplified by the fact that eastern coyotes are larger in size than their western cousins, whichRead more
Mistaken identity: coyote or red wolf?
In my first post about red wolves, I discussed the physical and genetic similarities that coyotes and red wolves share. I also showed pictures of both species as a comparison. These two animals are very difficult to tell apart, especially if it is from a distance while one runs through the grass or across the road. Although each species has their own specific body dimensions such as height, length of the legs and snout, and the degree of bushiness inRead more
Red Wolf History
So far, we have written several posts about our red wolves here. While most of them have discussed our wolves’ health, we have also shown some video of great interactions with enrichment, as well as talking about their annual physicals. However, there is an abundance of information to be shared about this critically endangered species, and a good place to start is with their history. Red wolves (picture left) used to be one of the only large predators in theRead more