Longleaf Wildlife Trust

Wildlife · Red wolf

Red Wolf Conservation

One of the world's most endangered wolves lives in exactly one place: the coastal plain of eastern North Carolina. Here is why it nearly disappeared, and what it will take to bring it back.

By the Longleaf field team · Updated September 2026

Sample illustration. Red wolves are shy, tawny-cinnamon and much leaner than their gray cousins.
Status
Critically endangered
Wild range
Eastern North Carolina
Weight
45–80 lb
Recovery began
1987

Why are red wolves endangered?

Red wolves once ranged across the southeastern United States, from Texas to the Atlantic coast. By the middle of the twentieth century, bounties, trapping and the clearing of forests had erased them from almost everywhere. The last few wolves were taken into human care in the 1970s so the species could be bred and, one day, returned. In 1980 the red wolf was declared extinct in the wild.

Four pressures explain why the wild population is still so fragile:

  1. Habitat loss. Pocosin wetlands, longleaf forests and the corridors between them have been drained, cut and paved over.
  2. Vehicle strikes and persecution. Roads cross the wolves’ territory, and wolves are sometimes mistaken for coyotes.
  3. Hybridization with coyotes. Coyotes moved into the region as wolves disappeared. Where the two meet, they breed, diluting the red wolf gene pool.
  4. A very small population. With so few animals, one bad year of disease, storms or fires can undo a decade of progress.

A species doesn’t disappear all at once. It disappears one territory, one litter and one road crossing at a time.

Where do red wolves live today?

In 1987 a small number of captive-bred wolves were released on the Albemarle Peninsula in eastern North Carolina, the first time any species declared extinct in the wild had been returned to it. The wild population there is still just a few dozen animals. They roam a landscape of farmland, forest and pocosin wetlands: shrubby, peat-rich swamps that give wolves cover, and give pups a place to be born unseen.

How we’re helping

Recovery is slow, patient work, and it happens on private land as much as public refuges.

  • Tracking and monitoring

    GPS collars and camera traps show where wolves travel, den and cross roads, so crossings can be made safer.

  • Pup fostering

    Captive-born pups are placed with wild litters so they grow up as wild wolves with wild parents.

  • Landowner partnerships

    Farmers and foresters get practical support to protect livestock and let wolves pass through.

  • Habitat corridors

    We protect and restore the wetlands and forest links that connect one territory to the next.

How you can help

Not every way to help involves money. You can add your voice to the public comment on recovery funding, give a weekend to habitat work, or simply tell someone what you learned here. If you’d like to support the field teams directly, you can make a gift any time.

Sample content written for a fictional organization. Figures are approximate and for demonstration only.