Red wolves are one of the most endangered species in the U.S., and efforts are underway to help restore their population. However, there have been setbacks. The Washington Post reported that a litter of five red wolf puppies has recently died after their father was killed by a car.
What's happening?
The litter was located in the eastern part of North Carolina, the Post revealed, and the puppies were born in April.
However, in June, the pups' father, named 2444M, was hit by a car on Highway 64. This led to the mother, 2413F, abandoning the pups, who later died as a result, leaving fewer than 20 known red wolves alive in the area.
Joe Madison, manager of North Carolina's red wolf recovery program for the Fish and Wildlife Service, called the situation "brutal" and "maddening," per the Post.
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Fish and Wildlife also released a statement about the situation, saying, "Pup survival is always a concern after the mortality of one of the breeding pair."
Unfortunately, there is only one other red wolf litter in the area this year, a group of eight whose outcome is also uncertain. Fish and Wildlife said the pups have "not been definitively detected and identified during monitoring … since late June," per the Post.
Why is this loss important?
The effort to reestablish red wolves in the area is struggling. Plans to release captive wolves in the area won't matter if the wild wolves can't replenish their numbers with new pups.
Reestablishing a population of red wolves is about more than just returning a beautiful and charismatic species to its native range. As the return of wolves to Yellowstone demonstrated, returning a keystone predator species to an area has the potential to stabilize prey populations, promote apparently unrelated plant and animal species, and even change the landscape for the better.
But that won't happen in North Carolina as long as so many red wolves are lost to car collisions.
"Right now, road mortality is the main thing holding the population back," Ron Sutherland, the Wildlands Network's chief scientist, told the Post.
What's being done about the wolf population?
"The tragic deaths of these five pups might have been prevented if we had wildlife crossings in red wolf country," said senior scientist Will Harlan of the Center for Biological Diversity, per the Post. "It's shocking to see how a single vehicle collision has ripple effects across the critically endangered wild red wolf population."
To create those crossings, state and federal officials plan to apply for grants under the 2021 infrastructure bill passed by Congress. An anonymous donor also pledged $2 million if conservation groups can match the amount, the Post reported.
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