ST. VINCENT ISLAND (WTXL) – A second government shutdown has been avoided, but the five week shutdown earlier this year is having a lasting impact on a National Wildlife Refuge in our area. Just off the coast of Gulf and Franklin Counties, St. Vincent Island is home to endangered species and a host of other wildlife.But during the longest government shutdown ever, the island was left unattended for weeks. “The staff was not able to be here. We lost 600 hours of their time working on the refugee managing wildlife,” said Susan Cerulean, Incoming President of Friends of St. Vincent NWR. One of the animals most affected by the shutdown was the endangered red wolf.There are only about 200 red wolves in the U.S with four of them living on St. Vincent. Volunteer Nancy Stewart says staff members try to tag baby red wolves during January because when wolves get scared, their body temperatures rise.

Source: St. Vincent Wildlife Refuge recovering after Hurricane Michael, government shutdown | News | wtxl.com

Red wolves once roamed a broad stretch of the southeastern United States, settling in several states including Texas, Florida and West Virginia. But by 1980, the canines were virtually extinct in the wild, their population largely limited to wolves born through captive breeding programs.Today, just 40 or so of these elusive red wolves—stemming from a group reintroduced to North Carolina in the late ‘80s—remain living in the wild. Luckily, Ed Cara writes for Gizmodo, a team of Princeton University researchers recently chanced upon a surprising discovery that could very well secure the threatened species’ future: As the scientists report in the journal Genes, a pack of canines native to Texas’ Galveston Island carry elements of the red wolf’s DNA, including so-called “ghost alleles” once thought to have vanished from the genetic record.

Source: Pack of Wild Dogs in Texas Carry DNA of Nearly Extinct Red Wolf | Smart News | Smithsonian

nstead of seeking to dominate and control the Earth, we should respect and live in harmony with all of the creatures in it. We do not have the right, as humans, to determine which species can stay and which can go. For this reason, we should do everything in our power to help and protect those that cannot protect themselves.The survival of the red wolf is in jeopardy, mostly due to human encroachment and unregulated hunting. As of now, it is the most critically endangered mammal in the world and without intervention and protection, it will soon become extinct. The red wolf is the only species of wolf that is native and unique to the United States.

Source: OP-ED: On the edge of extinction: Why we should save the red wolf | Opinion | technicianonline.com

On November 4, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina granted summary judgment in favor of conservation organizations Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, and Animal Welfare Institute in a case challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) administration of the recovery program for endangered red wolves (Canis rufus).

Source: Federal Court finds that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Management of Reintroduced Red Wolves Violated Endangered Species Act – Lexology

Animal conservationists near St. Louis are planning to breed red wolves, the rarest species of wolves on the planet, at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.The Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, which provides refuge for endangered wolf species, has been working with A-State to raise awareness of red wolves in recent year. The species became A-State’s mascot in 2008, after it retired its former mascot, the Indian Family.Conservationists and university officials plan to build a red wolf breeding center in the next three years to house four or five pairs of wolves. Red wolves were once found in many parts of the eastern U.S., but only 30 wolves remain in the wild, on the North Carolina coast. About 200 live in captivity in sanctuaries such as the Endangered Wolf Center.

Source: Eureka-based wolf refuge to build home in Arkansas for the world’s rarest wolf | KSMU Radio

With fewer than three dozen red wolves remaining in the wild on the Albemarle Peninsula in Eastern North Carolina, the federal agency that oversees them will consider a change to the existing regulations governing the 30-year-old red wolf recovery program.Supporters of the program that reintroduced the federally endangered animal into the wild said a change to the current rules would imperil their existence.But opponents – many of whom are residents of the peninsula – said they hoped the Red Wolf Recovery Program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would soon come to an end. The federal agency manages wildlife refuges and protects federally endangered species.

Source: Uncertain future for federal red wolf program near NC coast

BRIDGEPORT — Another rare red wolf now calls the Beardsley Zoo home after arriving in mid-July, the zoo announced on Friday.The wolf, a 3-year-old named Peanut, came from the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. The zoo said the last few weeks were spent making Peanut comfortable in his new home.The zoo’s on-site veterinarian ruled Peanut to be in “excellent physical condition.” He joins the zoo’s female red wolf, Shy, who has been living at the city’s zoo since 2016.

Source: Rare red wolf finds new home at Beardsley Zoo – Houston Chronicle