A new study published by Dr. Ron Sutherland and partners in Animal Conservation has revealed that the recent steep declines of endangered red wolves coincided with significant increases in multiple prey and competitor species on lands within the red wolf recovery area in eastern North Carolina.
The findings indicate that this rare wolf species had been exerting important ecological impacts before its rapid decline. After the red wolf population crashed from poaching and vehicle strikes, populations of prey species like white-tailed deer and wild turkey held steady, but mesopredators, including raccoons, opossums, bobcats and bears, showed large increases. For example, the raccoon detection rate doubled from 2018 to 2021 as wolf numbers declined.
While the influential role of gray wolves is now widely appreciated after studies showed remarkable changes in the ecology of Yellowstone National Park after gray wolves were returned, until now, no similar research has been conducted on the critically imperiled red wolf.
Learn more in this story from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and read the full study here.
