Why 2025 could be a huge year if North Carolina wants to save the red wolf

This year could be a milestone year in protection and recovery efforts for the red wolf in North Carolina, a species that in recent years has dwindled to a critically low population. 

Watching the two red wolves mosey around their pen over the webcam installed at the Red Wolf Center in Columbia, NC, on an early-February afternoon, one can’t immediately understand the importance of the moment. 

These wolves represent a significant milestone in the effort to conserve and protect the critically endangered red wolf species.

The pair of red wolves arrived at the center in October as the first ever breeding pair hosted by the Red Wolf Center, which is operated in partnership between the North Carolina Wildlife Federation (NCWF) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service. 

“This is a monumental moment for the Red Wolf Center and for the future of Red Wolves,” stated Tim Gestwicki, CEO of North Carolina Wildlife Federation, upon announcement of the pair’s arrival in October. “Bringing together this pair for the first time at the Center highlights the tireless efforts of everyone involved in Red Wolf recovery, from on-the-ground biologists to supporters who believe in the cause. We’re hopeful that this pair will lead to a new generation of Red Wolves, underscoring that recovery is a complex, collaborative effort.”

After months of bonding, the two wolves are now in breeding season, which means all eyes are on the pen for staff at the Red Wolf Center in eastern North Carolina. Katerina Ramos, a red wolf education and outreach coordinator with NCWF, is one member of that staff. 

They’re keeping a keen eye on the webcams, watching for any breeding behavior that could help them know when to look for the birth of pups during whelping season in April. 

“I’m telling everyone that if they see them stuck together or any fun breeding behaviors to take a screenshot from our livestream cameras and send it to me,” Ramos told Cardinal & Pine. “Because then that helps us calculate their gestation period, which is about 60 to 61 days.” 

It’s an exciting time for Ramos and others who work to help protect red wolves in North Carolina, as a string of recent announcements has set 2025 up to be a milestone year in protection and recovery efforts for a species that in recent years has dwindled to a critically low population. 

 

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Why there’s a need

Red wolves once roamed throughout the Eastern Seaboard from Pennsylvania to Florida and as far west as Texas. Today, however, North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula is home to the only confirmed wild red wolves in existence.

It was a combination of factors that devastated the red wolf population. People are the biggest culprits though.

While the animals play a vital and unique biological role within their ecosystem, the species saw a decline of more than 85% between 2010-2020, going from roughly 130 to 15 wolves. By 2021, there were only seven left. 

There are currently 16 known wild red wolves living in and around the Pocosin Lakes and Alligator River national wildlife refuges that surround the Red Wolf Center. 

The Red Wolf SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) Program—in conjunction with federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations like NCWF, and local community members—also works to aid in species-recovery efforts by managing a population of fewer than 300 red wolves that are under human care in various zoos and nature centers.

Ramos’ job as red wolf education and outreach coordinator is to help people understand the importance of these efforts by slowly chipping away at the stigma painting red wolves as deadly villains, a result of decades if not centuries of fairy tales and the like.

When asked the most optimistic goal she would like to see accomplished related to red wolf recovery efforts during her lifetime, Ramos thinks not of the breeding plans or tracking efforts but public opinion. 

“Changing or helping improve the narrative surrounding apex predators like red wolves and gray wolves,” she explained. “Steering away from the old-time folklore of the big, bad wolf. 

“Whether I’ll see that in my lifetime is another question,” she continued, “but that is something that I would love to see because a big component of this red wolf recovery is having people see that this is not the big, bad wolf of fairy tales but instead a very shy, elusive creature that is just existing on the landscape and not this all-out, aggressive, angry animal.” 

Providing a place to cross

While hunters were once the top threat to red wolves, motorists have since replaced them.

Those who travel to the Outer Banks regularly know that a long stretch of US 64 passes directly through the Pocosin Lakes and Alligator River refuges. Six red wolves have been killed by vehicle strikes on US 64 in the past five years. In June 2024, a breeding male red wolf was killed on the highway, a loss that led to the deaths of his five young pups.

Advocates are hoping another recent announcement will help curtail these tragic incidents. 

In December, the Federal Highway Administration announced that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) would receive $25 million to build new wildlife crossing structures on US 64 to help red wolf recovery efforts.

The grant will allow the state to build a series of 11 wildlife underpasses of various sizes along US 64 where the road passes through Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, the last stretch before reaching the Outer Banks, so frequented by visitors in the summer. 

“We know the benefits wildlife corridors can provide to species traversing our state’s roadways, and perhaps none are in more need of safe passage than Red Wolves,” said Ben Prater, Southeast program director for Defenders of Wildlife, a wildlife advocacy group, in a statement following the announcement. “In the face of environmental changes that are increasingly transforming and fragmenting the landscape, this funding comes at a critical time, when we have the opportunity to make our roadways safer for motorists and wildlife alike.” 

Funded largely as part of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program included in Joe Biden’s 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, NCDOT was also required to provide 20% of the cost for the overall project, which meant contributing more than $6 million in non-federal matching funds. 

To assist the state, the conservation nonprofit Wildlands Network secured an initial $2 million challenge grant from an anonymous philanthropist and received a total of $305,000 from The Volgenau Foundation, the Felburn Foundation, and the Animal Welfare Institute. 

The Center for Biological Diversity has raised an additional $1.65 million in private funding from their members and foundations towards completing the $2 million challenge grant.

Cardinal & Pine reached out to Defenders of Wildlife in January after newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all federal funding and then, facing widespread criticism and legal action, rescinded it. However, the Trump administration has reportedly used a legal loophole to effectively maintain the freeze in some areas. 

A spokesperson answered that those responsible for carrying out the grant on a local level were “all hands on deck digging into the executive orders to understand them completely and their potential impacts,” but couldn’t answer yet whether the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program funding would be affected. 

The crossings on US 64 are expected to benefit dozens of other species in addition to red wolves. An ongoing daily roadkill survey led by Wildlands Network and funded by the Animal Welfare Institute and Defenders of Wildlife has documented more than 2,400 dead vertebrate animals on the stretch of highway passing through Dare and Tyrrell Counties (along with a short stretch of US 264) since the project was launched on Aug. 1, 2024. 

That includes more than 700 turtles, 700 snakes, and 600 amphibians along with over 100 birds, six river otters, two black bears, and two bobcats. 

Photo via MagnusManske_CC BY-SA 2.0.jpg

Waiting for more good news

Back at the Red Wolf Center, all eyes are on the newly arrived breeding pair, designated as 2445M (male) and 2292F (female). 

According to Ramos, the scientific-sounding designations are meant to keep advocates and others from viewing the animals as they would their pets, but also to mark each wolf’s role in a larger effort. 

She explained that, in the 1970s, the red wolf recovery movement started in earnest when advocates captured the last remaining members of the species living in the wild in Louisiana and Texas. They were then able to document the full restart of the red wolf population beginning with those 14 “founding individuals.”  

Recorded in a working document called a studbook, each new pup was assigned a number going up from the original 14. Ramos said the studbook recently reached no. 2500. 

“That’s really significant to see the history and the absolute gravity of red wolf recovery,” she said. “So we really encourage people to use those studbook numbers because it really does honor the fight that has been fought for red wolf recovery.” 

Ramos said she’s encouraged to see the momentum that has been building around red wolf recovery since the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2022 announced a renewed focus on helping to save the species. 

She and other advocates on the ground will continue to work to push that movement forward in any way they can. 

“Recently, we’ve seen a huge positive shift in the recommitment for the recovery of the red wolf,” Ramos said. “There’s a lot more being done on the ground, a lot more advocacy and understanding of where our intentions and this information lies. So it’s just really awesome to see. 

“We went from seven known red wolves in the wild in 2021 to 16 today,” she said, “so there’s definitely the energy and the momentum going towards red wolf recovery.”