The Scout Bracelet

“Tracking Red Wolves allows scientists to monitor and gather accurate data on population dynamics, preferred habitats, home ranges, and movement, which helps provide protective measures for their success in the wild. It allows for several key management actions that are critical to the recovery of Red Wolves, such as finding wild dens, fostering pups, determining the cause of deaths, knowing which Red Wolves are paired, placing Red Wolves in acclimation pens to create new breeding pairs, and more. Mark Twain said, “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.”

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.

“Red Wolves wear orange radio collars that transmit by VHF (very high frequency) and/or GPS (global positioning system). Each animal’s radio collar has a unique frequency that transmits a signal allowing them to be located. VHF tracking involves using directional antennae to listen for a signal given off by a transmitter in the radio collar. The operator rotates the antennae until they can determine which direction the signal is coming from the loudest. That process is repeated from at least 3 different locations, allowing the operator to put together the direction of the signal from each spot and accurately determine the Red Wolf’s location.  GPS radio collars transmit the location of the Red Wolf via satellites on a set schedule, and biologists can then view that data.”

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.

“Tracking does not harm the Red Wolves and enhances their chance for survival in the wild.”

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.

Below are past, current, and future factors that have, are, or could affect the Red Wolf (both the SAFE and wild populations). Threats are not mutually exclusive, as one can trigger another or exacerbate the impacts of another. 

- Small population size and associated inbreeding depression that decrease species resiliency and exacerbates impacts of other threats (SAFE and wild populations)

- Anthropogenic-related mortality, including gunshot, vehicle strikes, management mortality, poisoning and other suspected illegal activity (wild population)

- Coyote hybridization/introgression (wild population)

- Negative public perception of canids that may undermine recovery efforts and could exacerbate some threats above (wild population)

- Future habitat loss from sea level rise and increased flooding (wild population)

- Future habitat loss from development (wild population)

- Disease and parasites (SAFE and wild populations)

- Intraspecific strife, including territorial competition between Red Wolves (SAFE and wild populations)”

[From USFWS Revised Recovery Plan 2023]

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.

“As of August 2024, there are 292 American Red Wolves under human care in 50 partner institutions across the United States. As of August 2024, there are 17 known Red Wolves that make up the wild population in North Carolina. This population is referred to as the Eastern North Carolina Red Wolf Population (ENC RWP).”

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.

Past trapping, poaching, and habitat loss are primarily to blame for the Red Wolves’ endangered status—they are now the most endangered wolf species in the world. Red Wolves once occupied space as far south as Texas all the way to the southern tip of New York, but in the 17 and 1800s, intensive hunting and predator control programs nearly wiped out the species entirely. 

Red Wolves first received federal protection under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 in 1967. Zoos stepped up to establish a population in human care in 1969 in an attempt to preserve their numbers by breeding and increasing the amount of Red Wolves to later be released into the wild. Red Wolves received additional protections courtesy of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service knew the wild population was on the brink of extinction, and set out to capture the last remaining wild Red Wolves to help secure the breeding program in zoos. Through all the trapping efforts, just 14 Red Wolves were identified and used as founders to establish the population under human care.

The Cherokee recognize and honor the Red Wolf’s personhood—we capitalize Red Wolf to emphasize that honor and equality. American Red Wolf SAFE recognizes that the story of the Red Wolf, and fostering that understanding and empathy, is a critical component to Red Wolf recovery.

To learn more, visit our partner directly at fws.gov/project/red-wolf-recovery-program.