More endangered red wolves will be released in the U.S. under a legal settlement

Pantheraman

Well-Known Member
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/1193200357/red-wolves-release-lawsuit

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to continue releasing red wolves into the wild in order to settle a lawsuit brought by conservation groups.

According to court filings, the USFWS committed on Wednesday to an eight-year plan to boost populations with captive-born animals in eastern North Carolina, the species' only remaining range. Just over 30 of the animals are estimated to be left in the wild, which is only a fraction of what the population was a decade ago.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife and the Animal Welfare Institute. The groups claimed that USFWS had violated the Endangered Species Act, putting red wolves at risk of extinction to appease politicians and ranchers."
 
My main concern here is that there's no stipulations about mitigating the main causes of mortality so far- namely road accidents and shooting/"mistaken identity" by coyote hunters attached to this promise of further releases.

Just releasing more animals without tackling the very real threats to population viability is not likely to lead to success.
 
My main concern here is that there's no stipulations about mitigating the main causes of mortality so far- namely road accidents and shooting/"mistaken identity" by coyote hunters attached to this promise of further releases.

Just releasing more animals without tackling the very real threats to population viability is not likely to lead to success.

Those are also concerns that I have.
 
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