A new birth in the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area has the science world optimistic that the declining red wolf population may be able to survive despite the threats to its natural habitat and poaching that has seen the red wolf hit the endangered species list.
The birth of a red wolf pup gives new hope for the species as scientists had been looking for a way to continue to assist the wolves in growing their numbers.
The young wolf is to remain with her parents for at least a year and a half before she will be taken by park administration to either a zoo or a nature center where she can develop and lead her own pack, in the hopes that it will progress the species further.
"As she gets older and braver, the little pup will become more visible. Right now she is still hard to see," said Darrin Samborski, facility manager for the Nature Station. The Nature Station is one of the gateways to the 171,280-acre area, which stradles the Kentucky-Tennessee border and hosts 1.4 million visitors a year.
Red wolves had once been among the most populous animals in North America before Europeans arrived and began to take over their traditional habitats and destroy natural hunting grounds through the expansion of agriculture. This caused them to disappear from many parts of the South.
Although there are no plans to re-introduce red wolves into the wild, scientists hope that they can continue to help reboot the population with the ultimate goal of not losing the species.
"Coyotes and humans are direct competitors for resources with the shy red wolf. They can only exist in areas where both are low in population," said lead naturalist, John Pollpeter.
Red wolves currently only are found in small pockets in northeast North Carolina.
Across the country, wolves continue to face an uphill battle against public opinion, where poaching and culls have become commonplace, leading to worries that wolf populations in North America are facing one of their worst periods in history since Europeans began killing them in droves centuries ago.
Conservationists believe that efforts are needed to maintain wolf populations and have urged citizens to look closer at how and why wolf populations are declining and how they can be supported in order to maintain biodiversity and ecosystems that are constantly threatened by human intervention.
