There was actually a study to determine if red wolves are wolves. The answer could have doomed them.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

There was actually a study to determine if red wolves are wolves. The answer could have doomed them.

By Darryl Fears April 2

Over the federal government’s 30-year effort to revive endangered red wolves in North Carolina, there have been many attempts by opponents to get rid of them. But to argue that the wolves engaged in so much sex with coyotes that the two species somehow became one? That was a novel approach.

It is a good argument if you can prove it. Red wolves are a rare and dying breed that actually went extinct in the wild before a few were set free again after being bred in zoos. Coyotes are plentiful, and unlike the larger wolves, they are ineligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Last year, North Carolina officials and landowners opposed to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduction program helped convince Congress to commission a nearly $400,000 study to determine if the wolves are more coyote than wolf. Opponents greeted it as a victory for those who want to run the animals out of the state.

On Thursday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released their findings nearly a year to the day after the study was ordered, settling a seesaw battle over the red wolf’s taxonomy that had dragged on for decades.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/04/02/there-was-actually-study-determine-if-red-wolves-are-wolves-answer-could-have-doomed-them/

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Related: Evaluating the Taxonomic Status of the Mexican Gray Wolf and the Red Wolf (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine)

[DRoseDARs]

1. Since both the WP and original study are paywalled, spolier alert: Red Wolves are a sep species.

Alternate source:
https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2019-04-02/endangered-species-and-wildlife/north-carolinas-red-wolf-a-unique-species-study-finds/a66011-1

As part of recent appropriations bills, Congress directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate the animals' genetic origins. The study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, found evidence that the red wolf is a unique species genetically separate from gray wolves and coyotes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently has taken steps to strip protections for red wolves in the wild. Prater said the new study cements the red wolf's status as a species worthy of protection.

"So now, we believe that not only do conservationists and advocates for the recovery of the world's most endangered wolf, but also the agency itself - the Fish and Wildlife Service - trusted with its protection, now has solid scientific footing to stand on, to say yes, this is a valid species and we must do what we need to do now to ensure that it is conserved and recovered in the wild,” he said.