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Understanding Interactions Between Red Wolves and Coyotes

By Joseph W. Hinton, Graduate Assistant, and Michael J. Chamberlain, Associate Professor

Prior to European settlement of North America, red wolves roamed throughout the southeastern United States. Habitat destruction, indiscriminate killing, and government bounties nearly eradicated red wolves from their historical range, and by the 1960s, it was believed that the entire remaining red wolf population numbered less than 100 individuals confined to marginal coastal habitats of eastern Texas and western Louisiana. This remnant population began to hybridize with the expanding coyote population, and in an attempt to prevent the extinction of red wolves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) captured many red wolves from the late 1960s and early 1970s to begin a captive breeding program. By 1980, the red wolf had been declared extinct from the wild, and only 17 of the captured animals were known to be pure red wolf, resulting in a very small captive breeding population.  In 1986, FWS reintroduced the red wolf into northeastern North Carolina, and to date the only free roaming, wild population of red wolves lives in and around the reintroduction site.  Notably, the red wolf reintroduction effort was the first successful attempt to restore a large carnivore species declared extinct in the wild.

The red wolf is listed as federally endangered under the Endangered Species Act, yet red wolf ecology and natural history are poorly understood.  Interactions with coyotes and the prevention of coyote gene introgression into the wild red wolf gene pool are currently the most critical factors vital to long-term recovery and management of red wolves. In northeastern North Carolina, red wolves currently coexist with an expanding coyote population. Red wolves show a wide continuum of interactions with coyotes that range from lethal encounters resulting in coyote mortalities to pair-bonding that result in hybridization. Understanding the factors that contribute to this continuum of behaviors is important to red wolf recovery efforts.

In cooperation with FWS and the Red Wolf Recovery Team, we are using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with radio-tracking techniques to investigate red wolf and coyote space use, habitat preferences, resource partitioning, and movement patterns.  During January 2009, we worked with FWS biologists to begin capturing coyotes and red wolves to be fitted with GPS radio collars. Locations of the collared animals are recorded by satellites at set intervals throughout the day, and these locations will aid in highlighting movement corridors for both species and allow researchers to evaluate how and where the species interact on the landscape.

The successful recovery of red wolves depends on our ability to distinguish what ecological and environmental factors facilitate specific types of interactions between red wolves and coyotes, regardless of whether these interactions are antagonistic or friendly.  Knowledge gained from our research project will be valuable for selecting future red wolf release sites and for addressing long-term management needs of red wolf recovery, particularly because coyote-free areas no longer exist within the historic range of the red wolf.