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LBL Receives Red Wolf
Land Between
the Lakes recently received a 3-year old female red wolf from the
Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee. She will be a partner to LBL’s 7-year old male
red wolf who lost his 15-year old partner in 2009. The red wolf is related
to the gray wolf and coyote, but it is the only one of the species that is
found exclusively in the United States.
Both the gray wolf and red wolf are currently on the Federal Endangered
Species List.
Bill Lisowsky, LBL’s Area Supervisor, invites everyone to come out and
visit the new female red wolf. “The Nature Station has 150 species of
native plants and 43 different species of animals. Other than our four red
wolves in the captive breeding program each animal including our bald
eagle, bobcat, vultures, coyotes, turkeys, and snakes are rescue animals
that could no longer survive on their own.”
From 1973 to 1980, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captured every
single red wolf in the United States and declared the species officially
extinct in the wild. This drastic measure was taken to establish a captive
breeding program to save the red wolf population. Red wolves were being
forced to breed with coyotes that moved into their territory jeopardizing
the survival of the red wolf as a species.
Genetic testing that was performed on the 400 captured wolves revealed
that only 14 were truly red wolves. In 1984 the USFWS and the American Zoo
and Aquarium Association took this tiny remaining population and
implemented a captive breeding program for the red wolf. LBL became a
partner for that program in 1991.
NS Lead Naturalist, John Pollpeter, said he was excited about the
opportunity to host the new wolf and educate the public about red wolves,
which used to be native to LBL. “Since we began with the last 14 red
wolves in the United States we have been able to expand that population to
300. Red wolves generally mate for life; we’ve had wolf puppies at NS in
the past and we’re hoping our new wolf partnership will produce puppies in
the future.”
Steve McCadams is a professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing
area. He has also contributed many outdoor oriented articles to
various national publications. |
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