Red wolf recovery program going strong on St. Vincent Island, national Wildlife Refuge (NWR)
Posted on April 20, 2014 by toesinthesand2013
New male red wolf 1804
St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) has the unique status of participating in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s red wolf recovery program. St. Vincent Island (SVI) is fortunate to have the capacity and features to allow a free roaming “semi-wild experience” for this endangered species. Here a red wolf pair has the opportunity to breed and raise pups without significant human interference in a natural habitat. Because the island is not trying to establish a permanent wolf population, most of the pups around 18 months of age are transferred to the 1.2 million acre five county red wolf recovery area in eastern North Carolina http://www.fws.gov/alligatorriver/ St Vincent NWR was first approved as a red wolf island propagation site in the fall of 1989 and has since been home to 21 unique adults with 25 pups born on location. Adults that are sent off the island for any number of reasons such as age or health concerns have gone to places such as The Tallahassee History and Natural Sciences Museum, the Wolf Conservation Center of New York, and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium/Graham, WA red wolf facility http://www.pdza.org/red-wolf-conservation to name a few. Likewise adult red wolves have been sent to St. Vincent Island from all over the United States. Red wolves are identified by number (e.g., 1548, 1124, 982). The last pair prior to December 2013, female 1729 and male 1565, were not successful for over four years in their ability to have pups; so, in December of 2013 male 1565 was sent to the Wolf Conservation Center of New York in South Salem, NY http://nywolf.org/ and one of their male red wolves was sent to SVI in exchange. New male 1804 and female 1729 were placed in a large acclimation pen on the island for a short time in an effort to both introduce the pair and help male 1804 adjust to his new environment. Encouraging video evidence of their subsequent pair bonding there and now in the wild leave biologist Bradley Smith and Refuge Manager Shelley Stiaes hopeful there will be a new litter of red wolf pups roaming the Refuge soon. St. Vincent NWR boasts an amazing history and support of this beautiful endangered species. For more information on the red wolf recovery program there are a multitude of websites you can visit including more information on 1804 athttp://nywolf.org/home?p=9066 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service red wolf recovery program at http://www.fws.gov/redwolf/ Red wolf recovery team social media sites abound as well so please be sure to like and share the red wolf recovery team on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/redwolfrecoveryprogram, check out their blog:http://trackthepack.blogspot.com/ and follow them on Twitter @redwolfrecovery
