More red wolves = fewer 'coons = more birds

We've discussed some in the past the terrific work that has gone on to save the red wolf population in North Carolina. It's apparently having a positive effect on birds (but not raccoons, apparently).

"Good news for a wolf is good news for a turkey. At least it is in Eastern North Carolina, where red wolves are making a comeback and helping other animal species along the way," says McClatchy.

Since the wolves were reintroduced in 1987, biologists have watched them rattle all the links in the food chain.

"We've certainly seen turkey come back. We've seen quail populations increase," said David Rabon, coordinator of the Red Wolf Recovery Program.

Wolves' role in helping these ground-nesting birds is well known, Rabon said. Raccoons eat the birds' eggs, and red wolves prey on raccoons. More wolves mean fewer raccoons, and fewer raccoons mean more quail and turkey. Connecting the dots, more wolves mean more birds.

Effects like this aren't unique to Eastern North Carolina. Research from around the globe, compiled in an article in the journal Science last month, shows just how deeply large predators like wolves and cougars are connected to the ecosystems where they live. ...

There are three national wildlife refuges in the red wolves' territory: Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes, and Lake Mattamuskeet. The refuge managers work to create habitat for red wolves and other animals, including waterfowl, bears and alligators.

Other public lands in the area are managed as state game lands, where managers create habitat for species such as turkey, quail, and deer instead of wolves.

Creating a habitat for one animal doesn't necessarily make it harder for another, Rabon stressed. "The higher you go in the food chain, usually the larger the umbrella is for how many other species you also benefit."

But in the years since they've been reintroduced, the red wolves have expanded well beyond public land, where their impact is even less visible.

Much of the territory the wolves occupy is privately owned farmland. That land must be drained for farming, Rabon said, so it's already a very different landscape from the one the wolves might have originally inhabited. Because it's actively maintained for farming, any effect the wolves might have is constantly erased.

More red wolf news

From the Citizen-Times ...

The WNC Nature Center might get only a portion of $870,000 set aside for efforts to save endangered red wolves.

Details on how the money secured by U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, will be spent have been unclear, officials said. Shuler cited constituent respect for the outdoors and conservation as reasons for securing the federal funding for the red wolf captive breeding program.

The Nature Center operates one of about 40 captive breeding facilities in the country participating in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's red wolf recovery program.

Eighteen rare red wolf pups have been born at the Nature Center since the Asheville facility joined the effort. Red wolves have been at the brink of extinction, numbering only about 300 worldwide.

New money for the effort was included in a $410 billion omnibus spending measure signed by President Barack Obama last week.

“When you lose a species, you never get it back,” Shuler said.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Red wolves to get aid

Well, the N.C. State Wolfpack may have laid a number of eggs of late, but there's at least some good news for some other red wolves from North Carolina.

The red wolf, which roams wild only in North Carolina, is getting some federal help for the endangered species' most important task -- breeding [says the Charlotte Observer].

There is $870,000 tucked inside the $410 billion spending package signed recently by President Barack Obama for the red wolf revival program.

The money will help build a new breeding center near Tacoma, Wash., where encroaching development near the current center has dampened the wolves' breeding habits.

Some of the earmark funds would also expand the red wolf program in Asheville, which since 1985 has participated in the captive breeding effort with at least a pair and sometimes a pack of wolves. ...

It's all part of a decades-long effort to save the red wolf, a large animal with tinges of red on its shoulders, legs and ears. The species, all but wiped out by humans who viewed the animals as predators, had been reduced to only 17 known survivors in the 1970s.

[T]he wolves have made a gradual comeback since scientists began releasing them into the wild in 1986.

Now, an estimated 100 to 130 live free in Eastern North Carolina, in a five-county area that includes the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, said Buddy Fazio of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Manteo. ...

Go Pack! At least you guys are having a good year!

(Image from the Red Wolf Recovery Project's website)