From Red Wolves, Lessons in Resilience PAG E 4 Softer Skills Can Help Mediate Harsh Conservation Disagreements PAG E 8 Wolf Watching in ...
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From Red Wolves,
Lessons in Resilience PA G E 4
Softer Skills Can Help Mediate Harsh
Conservation Disagreements PA G E 8
Wolf Watching in Yellowstone:
Viewing Versus Habituation PA G E 12
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VOLUME 29, NO. 2 THE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOLF CENTER S U M M E R 2 019
Nate Bowersock
Robert Wilcox
4 8 12
Adobe Stock
From Red Wolves, Lessons Softer Skills Can Help Wolf Watching in Yellowstone:
in Resilience Mediate Harsh Conservation Viewing Versus Habituation
Disagreements
They looked and acted like red Yellowstone may be the best place in
wolves—but red wolves had long ago Francine Madden knows how to the world to view free-ranging wolves,
disappeared from Galveston Island. reach a collaborative solution, and but that accessibility has several
The quest to identify these “mystery” her approach is bringing civility to downsides for humans and for wolves.
canines revealed a surprise: red wolf discussions between pro and con Problems like overcrowding and
genes persisted nearly 40 years after forces about the future of wolves. habituated wolves are complicated.
the species was thought to be extinct Respect, trust-building and listening Doug Smith explains how solutions
in that region. The author explains are her tools, conservation issues will require behavior changes by the
the process—and the importance— her specialty, and focusing on future Park Service, the park visitors and
of this discovery. challenges part of her success. the resident wolves.
When she steps in, win-win
By Kelley Christensen B y D o u g l a s W. S m i t h
becomes possible.
B y Tr a c y O ’ C o n n e l l
On the Cover Departments
Photo by Christian Houre 3 From the
Christian Houge is a fine art photographer Executive Director
from Oslo, Norway. The cover image is from
his photo exhibit, Shadow Within. 18 Tracking the Pack
www.christianhouge.no/Shadow-Within
22 Wild Kids
Did you know? 24 Wolves of the World
One easy way for you to help us conserve
natural resources is to make sure we have 27 Personal Encounter
your email address. Simply email your
Mike Possis
address to membership@wolf.org. 30 A Look Beyond
Red wolves, once nearly extinct, again teeter on
the abyss—but new genetic research finds red
wolf ancestry on Galveston Island, providing
opportunities for additional conservation
action and creating policy challenges.
W hen Hurricane Ike stormed
ashore on Galveston Island,
a barrier island off the south
coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico,
the massive flooding and vegetation
damage impacted more than humans.
Ron Wooten, a biologist who lives on
the island, lost his dog to a hungry pack
of what he thought were coyotes shortly
after the hurricane.
Rather than try to ruthlessly hunt
down the animals for their crime,
Wooten instead sought to study them
From
to understand what would drive them
to kill a dog. Also a photographer, Wooten
was able to capture images of some
Red Wolves,
pack members. It was then he realized
that the animals were not coyotes.
“Seeing that they were unique and
did not look like coyotes at all, I searched
Lessons in Resilience By KELLEY CHRISTENSEN
Ron Wooten Photography
Valerie Abbott
4 Summer 2019 w w w. w o l f . o r g
for almost two years to find someone maybe 30 yards away—about 60 pounds, program managers and was then used
who could help me identify those maybe 28 inches at the shoulder, with a with the Mexican wolf reintroduction.
animals,” Wooten said. “I started think- big, wide bowling-ball head. He tried to The reintroduced population in North
ing that they must have bred with a lie down behind a levee but he was so big Carolina grew for 25 years, even while
big dog somewhere down the line, he just stood out like a sore thumb. Then experiencing complex management
because these animals did not look he looked over his shoulder, turned, issues such as red wolves hybridizing
like coyotes. Much longer legs, much jumped 10 feet and was gone. with coyotes.
bigger, broader heads, longer ears, longer “I have spent a lot of time outdoors But the wild population is once again
snouts, and their behavior...” in this area and never had seen any- dwindling (from a peak of about 150
But other area wildlife managers thing like him before. I called every U.S. individuals in 2005 to a mere 25) amidst
didn’t seem to share Wooten’s convic- Fish & Wildlife Service and every Texas political controversy, pressure from land-
tion that animals that looked very much Parks & Wildlife Department person I owners for the right to shoot wolves on
like red wolves (Canis rufus) could still could find, thinking the world would their land, and poaching. In addition to
exist on Galveston Island. Despite the spring into action to confirm the pres- the wild population, there are approxi-
negative reactions, Wooten continued ence of these animals. You would’ve mately 200 red wolves in captivity. The
his study, watching the animals hunt thought I’d reported seeing a T-rex!” entire red wolf population in the United
small game and play together as a pack. And now, before the story of the States descends from 14 individuals, of
Bolstered by Steve Parker, a Galveston Galveston Island canids continues, we which only 12 are genetically represented.
attorney who shared an interest in the must travel 1,400 miles away to North The challenges the red wolf faced in
mystery, Wooten was able to recover Carolina, where a different tale of the the 1970s are essentially the same that
tissue samples from pack members that red wolf has unfolded… threaten the species today: persecution
had been struck by cars and left by by humans, habitat loss, hybridization
the side of the road—items he kept in A Story of Recovery and disease.
a freezer alongside rattlesnakes, deer
hides and a flying fish. Wooten sent the and Decline Ghosts of the Past,
samples to Bridgett vonHoldt, an assis- The red wolf is one of United States’
tant professor of ecology and evolution- greatest wildlife conservation stories. Red Wolves of the Future
ary biology at Princeton University. wolves were on the brink of extinction During the ongoing debate on how to
“After comparing the samples to along the American Gulf Coast during recover the red wolf, a team of research-
images of coyotes, reviewing a few papers the late 1970s when the U.S. Fish and ers including scientist Kristin Brzeski,
on wolf and coyote behavior, Wildlife Service (USFWS) made a bold
and remembering my genet- decision to purposely remove all remain-
ics lessons on island biol- ing red wolves from the wild.
ogy, it occurred to me that The USFWS attempted to trap all
perhaps this was a specific wild wolves remaining along the Gulf
group of wolves that had Coast of Texas and Louisiana to initiate
become genetically isolated a captive breeding program and recover
on the island by the physi- the species. After several years of suc-
cal barrier of surrounding cessful captive breeding, red wolves
water,” Wooten said. were released back onto the landscape
Having contributed the in North Carolina in 1987, well before
samples, Parker paints his the famous wolf-reintroduction effort
own experience to solve the in Yellowstone National Park.
mystery of the Galveston “The Red Wolf Recovery Program
Island residents that so has accomplished much with very little
clearly were not coyotes. public recognition,” says Cornelia Hutt,
Red Wolf Coalition board chair. “The
Becky Bartel / USFWS
“In 2000, a friend con-
firmed there was a pocket red wolf is the first predator ever to be
of very ‘wolfish’ animals restored to the wild after becoming offi-
near a container port under cially extinct in the wild.”
construction. One after- Hutt notes that the technique of pup
noon, we went down the fostering (placing pups from captive
road where one such animal was always wolves into dens of wild wolf pups)
seen, and sure enough, there he was, was developed by Red Wolf Coalition
I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wo l f Summer 2019 5
assistant professor in the Michigan threat from hybridization with coyotes. that the Galveston Island canids have
Technological University School of Forest “Red wolf research is exciting, frus- both red wolf and coyote alleles, likely
Resources and Environmental Science, trating, sad and uplifting at the same related to species interbreeding dur-
who worked with vonHoldt as a post- time,” Brzeski said. “They neared total ing the 1970s as coyote populations
doctoral researcher, discovered high extinction, were saved through captive expanded across North America.
amounts of red wolf ancestry in canids breeding, and have been demonized by “I had the privilege to work with wild
living on Galveston Island. opponents, all the while continuing to red wolves in North Carolina for my
“Our discovery that red wolf genes be a successful, reproductively viable PhD dissertation and hear them howl
persisted in Texas after being declared species that keeps on ticking—with the in the wild. Their reintroduction has
extinct in the wild was very surprising,” help of incredibly dedicated biologists, shaped wolf reintroductions since. What
Brzeski said. “It introduced positive managers, captive facilities and dedi- scientists learned changed how they
opportunities for additional conserva- cated volunteers, of course.” did Yellowstone and influenced what
tion action—and also some difficult The red wolf alleles—variant forms of they’re doing on Isle Royale,” Brzeski said.
policy challenges.” a given gene—appear to have persisted “Finding them (red wolves) in Galveston
Brzeski and her coauthors published in a population of canids on Galveston and Louisiana is so exciting because that’s
their findings, “Rediscovery of Red Wolf Island because of their isolation from where they came from. There is some
Ghost Alleles in a Canid Population Along coyotes, and the resultant improbabil- sort of reproductive isolation occurring
the American Gulf Coast” in December ity of interbreeding and hybridization. with zero human management.”
2018 in the journal Genes. This report The research group Brzeski was part The Galveston Island animals—
tended to support the 2010 publication of obtained tissue samples from two known to wildlife biologists as admixed
in the Southeastern Naturalist by Mech roadkill canids (not the same animals canids—do not share all variant genes
and Nowak of possible red wolf genetic Wooten took pictures of) on Galveston with contemporary red wolves, but they
representation in north-central Texas. Island and conducted analyses with are genetically closer to red wolves than
genome-wide, single nucleotide poly- they are to coyotes.
Canis rufus Persists morphism and mitochondrial DNA from This is significant; it means that red
There are just two recognized species 60 animals that represented all potential wolf genetics persist in the American
of wolf in the United States: the gray sources of ancestry for the Galveston south nearly 40 years after the species
and the red. Red wolves, native to the Island canids: coyotes, red wolves and was thought to be extinct in that region.
southeastern U.S., are smaller and more gray wolves. Brzeski and others found The canids on Galveston Island, and pos-
slender than their northern cousins. The sibly elsewhere, may represent a “reser-
red wolf population has also been under voir” of red wolf genes that could be used
to bolster other red wolf populations.
“This research shows hybrids can
have conservation value through har-
boring extinct genes from endangered
parent species,” Brzeski said.
Next Steps
In the past decade, red wolves have
been under attack by opponents of
the conservation program who claim
Robert Wilcox
Valerie Abbott
6 Summer 2019 w w w. w o l f . o r g
this animal is not genetically distinct in small pockets in the American South, References
from coyotes and therefore not eligible are indeed Canis rufus.
Heppenheimer, E.; Brzeski, K.E.;
for protection under the Endangered It is Wooten’s hope that red wolves
Wooten, R.; Waddell, W.; Rutledge,
Species Act. will continue to exist successfully on L.Y.; Chamberlain, M.J.; Stahler, D.R.;
Research reveals the need for fur- Galveston Island alongside humans. Hinton, J.W.; VonHoldt, B.M. (2018).
ther genetic sampling of coyote popula- Brzeski and Hutt, too, close their eyes Rediscovery of Red Wolf Ghost Alleles
tions in Louisiana and Texas to survey and hear the wolves howling in the North in a Canid Population Along the
for red-wolf ghost alleles. Additionally, Carolina dark. These people hope that American Gulf Coast. Genes, 9, 618.
researchers note a need for assessments red wolves thrive despite the challenges, DOI: 10.3390/genes9120618
of morphological differences in canids so that future generations might hear
with red wolf ancestry. The discovery of their song in darkened forests and wit- Committee on Assessing the
Taxonomic Status of the Red Wolf
the Galveston Island canids could also ness their crab hunts on the beach. n
and the Mexican Gray Wolf. (2019).
create an opportunity for future reintro- Consensus Study Report: Evaluating
duction efforts outside of North Carolina. Kelley Christensen is a science writer at the Taxonomic Status of the Mexican
Brzeski says, “Our discovery opens Michigan Technological University, where Gray Wolf and the Red Wolf. National
up a new chapter in their story: red wolf she is also pursuing her doctorate in envi- Academies Press.
ancestry has persisted independently ronmental policy. Prior to her current posi-
without focused management action. tion, she worked in newspaper journalism Mech, L. D. and R.M. Nowak. 2010.
How will this impact recovery efforts? in Montana and Nebraska, and as science Systematic Status of Wild Canis in
Can we recover extinct genes through editor for IEEE Earthzine. North-central Texas. Southeastern
Naturalist 9(3):587-594.
selective breeding with newly identified
admixed canids? These are difficult but A shorter version of this article was originally
exciting questions, broadly important published at mtu.edu/news under the headline
“A Future for Red Wolves May Be Found on
beyond red wolves, that will influence
Galveston Island.”
wildlife conservation in an era of major
climate and landscape change.” Grants & Funding This research was funded
In March 2019, the National by the PDZA Holly Reed Conservation Fund,
Academies of Sciences, Engineering NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in
and Medicine released the “Consensus Biology Grant No. 1523859, and the Ontario
Study Report Evaluating the Taxonomic Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry,
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Status of the Mexican Gray Wolf and
Council of Canada. Some southeastern
the Red Wolf,” sponsored by the U.S. coyote samples were provided under loan
Fish and Wildlife Service. The conclu- 501 agreement G.2016.3, 4318.
sions of the report are that historic red
wolves were a taxonomically valid spe-
cies, that extant red wolves are distinct
from gray wolves and coyotes, and that
extant red wolves trace some of their
ancestry to the historic red wolves. Based
on these conclusions, the report asserts
that the extant members of the species
in North Carolina, Galveston Island and
Becky Bartel / USFWS
Becky Bartel / USFWS
Robert Wilcox
I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wo l f Summer 2019 7
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