The endangered red wolf population in Eastern North Carolina has grown this year with the birth of four litters of pups in the wild.<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Wolf Recovery Program, four litters were born this year, with an estimated 12 to 16 pups surviving their first few months.<\/p>\n
The new pups were born within the red wolf recovery area centered around Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes national wildlife refuges and nearby private lands.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about 22 adult red wolves remain in the wild, making them the world’s most endangered wolf species.<\/p>\n
Three of this year’s litters were born to breeding pairs that also produced pups last year. Officials say red wolves mate for life, and family groups often help raise young pups.<\/p>\n
One litter was born on private property, where the landowner participates in the Prey for the Pack Program, which encourages red wolf conservation on private lands.<\/p>\n
Red wolves were reintroduced to eastern North Carolina in 1987 after being hunted to near extinction. Their wild population reached more than 130 animals by 2011 before declining sharply during the following decade.<\/p>\n
Vehicle collisions have become the leading cause of death for wild red wolves since 2020, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The group said eight red wolves have been killed by vehicles during that time, most along U.S. Highway 64.<\/p>\n
State and federal agencies are moving forward with plans to build wildlife crossings beneath the highway in an effort to reduce collisions involving red wolves and other wildlife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The endangered red wolf population in Eastern North Carolina has grown this year with the birth of four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-784715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}