USFWS releases review on the status of the red wolf

At the end of April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a five-year review on the status of the red wolf. The red wolf is currently listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. However, one of the ongoing issues regarding the species is if it is actually a species at all, and thereby if it can be covered under the ESA. “The red wolf (C. rufus) has generally been accepted as the valid designation for wolves in the southeastern United States; however, there is a lack of consensus among the scientific community regarding the taxonomy and genetic ancestry of the red wolf,” noted the report. It pointed out that numerous taxonomic and genetic investigations into the red wolf have variously concluded it is a subspecies of grey wolf, the result of ancient (over 10,000 years) hybridization between grey wolves and coyotes, the result of recent (300 years) hybridization of grey wolves and coyotes, a subspecies or variant of the Algonquin wolf, or that it is a distinct species all of its own. According to the ESA, a “species” is “any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any [distinct population segment] of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.” Currently, the red wolf’s primary threat is “introgression” with coyotes; that is, interbreeding with coyotes so that there are fewer and fewer “pure” red wolves born. Estimates place the wild population at 40 “pure” individuals. — WLJ