Threats to the red wolf include habitat loss [1] due to human development, negative attitudes that hinder restoration, severe weather, deaths by motor vehicles, and illegal killings. Interbreeding between coyote and red wolf populations has remained a constant threat to the recovery of this imperiled species.

Given that the entire current range of the red wolf in the wild is located in a small coastal area at roughly three feet in elevation, the impacts of climate change [2] – including storm surges and sea level rise – loom large as a threat to their future.

Reasons for Hope

In early 2008, the Navy finally abandoned a proposal to build a training airstrip adjacent to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina -- critical wintering ground for hundreds of thousands of migratory swans, geese and ducks, and home to the world’s only wild population of endangered red wolves.

A broad coalition worked for years to prevent the airstrip, with Defenders staff providing important support and thousands of our supporters writing messages urging the Navy to reconsider this ill-conceived plan.