RALEIGH, N.C.— The Federal Highway Administration today announced a $25 million grant for North Carolina to build wildlife crossings that will help save critically endangered Red Wolves. Only 16 red wolves remain in the wild, and vehicle collisions have become their leading cause of mortality.
The grant will fund 13 wildlife underpasses beneath U.S. 64, a highway that runs through the heart of the last red wolf refuges. Construction will also be supported by $4 million in private donations raised by the Center for Biological Diversity, Wildlands Network, and an anonymous donor’s matching grant.
“These crossings will save human lives and protect the world’s most endangered wolves,” said Will Harlan, Southeast director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I am immensely grateful to the agencies leading this project and to the thousands of donors and supporters who have given red wolves a fighting chance.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation submitted the grant application in partnership with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina also supported the red wolf wildlife crossings project.
“These wildlife crossings will help Red Wolves and also reconnect people,” said Donnie Rahnàwakęw McDowell, public relations officer for the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina. “They can bridge the gulf between human and wolf, and they can restore our connections to the natural world and each other.”
Four red wolves have been killed by vehicles in the past 15 months — including Airplane Ears, a breeding male who had sired 11 pups before being struck along Highway 64 last fall. His son Muppet was killed six months later along the same deadly stretch of highway.
Red wolves mate for life, and breeding partners share in feeding and taking care of their young. In May, another breeding male, 2444M, died in a vehicle collision along Highway 64 just two weeks after siring five pups. None of his pups survived.
In addition to endangered red wolves, wildlife crossings will also protect dozens of other species frequently killed along Highway 64, including river otters, bobcats, white-tailed deer, spotted turtles and black bears. The project area is home to highest density of black bears in the country.
The crossings will also protect human lives. Wildlife collisions kill more than 200 people in the United States every year and cause $10 billion in damages. Wildlife crossings have been shown to reduce vehicle collisions by 97%.
To support the federal grant application, an anonymous donor issued a $2 million match challenge. The Center for Biological Diversity and Wildlands Network built a coalition and led an eight-month campaign to raise the $2 million match. The Center raised $1.7 million, and Wildlands Network raised $300,000. More than 13,000 individual supporters also donated to the red wolf wildlife crossings campaign.
The red wolf wildlife crossings project was one of 16 grants awarded by the Federal Highway Administration.
The last wild red wolves live in the northeast corner of rural North Carolina near the Outer Banks, a popular tourist beach destination. Highway 64 is one of only two routes to the Outer Banks beaches, and the number of tourists traveling Highway 64 has increased to more than 11,800 vehicles per day during the summer months.
“These structures are expected to greatly reduce the road mortality threat to red wolves and other species, while also keeping motorists safe on the busy beach highway that heads to the famous Outer Banks,” said Ron Sutherland, Ph.D., chief scientist at Wildlands Network.
Learn more about the 16 remaining red wolves at SaveRedWolves.org.
Background
Tens of thousands of red wolves once roamed across most of eastern North America, but by 1960, they were nearly extinct. Red wolves were saved by Endangered Species Act listing, which led to a captive breeding program and the reintroduction of red wolves into the wild in 1987.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Wolf Recovery Program successfully grew the wild population to more than 120 wolves. Then the program was halted in 2015 and the population crashed to as few as seven wolves.
In 2020 the program resumed, but serious threats remain. Red wolves need wildlife crossings and additional reintroduction sites to ensure their genetic health and long-term survival.
