Topics in Restoration Ecology: Restoring the Red Wolf in North Carolina

The planet’s most endangered wolf is the red wolf, with only one wild population, a nonessential experimental group established in eastern North Carolina, of 15-17 individuals in existence as of 2022. The story of the red wolf is rich in history, dating back to the early 20th century wolf exterminations to the red wolf recovery program launched in 1967. Now, there are new issues on the rise. Shortly after the peak of success with the recovery program, red wolf numbers experienced a sharp decline due to human-caused mortality and hybridization with coyotes. This course seeks to understand the historical and modern events leading to the current state of the red wolf and prompts investigation into different restoration methods to form suggestions for the next best course of action. This lesson plan was created as part of an independent study in restoration ecology with Professor Marja Bakermans.

地球上最为濒危的狼种为赤狼，仅存一个野生种群，该种群为非必要的实验性群体，位于北卡罗来纳州东部，截至2022年，其存活的个体数量为15至17只。赤狼的历史故事源远流长，自20世纪初的狼种灭绝行动追溯至1967年启动的赤狼恢复计划。然而，随着恢复计划取得成功的巅峰期，赤狼的数量因人类造成的死亡和与狐狸杂交而急剧下降。本课程旨在探究导致赤狼当前状况的历史及现代事件，并促使对不同的恢复方法进行调查，以形成对未来行动的最佳建议。本教学计划是作为恢复生态学独立研究的一部分，由Marja Bakermans教授创建。