Workshop Executive Summary
(excerpt from report)
The red wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the most endangered animals in the world. It is a shy species
that once roamed throughout the southeast United States as a top predator. Aggressive predator
control programs and clearing of forested habitat combined to cause impacts that brought the red
wolf to the brink of extinction. By 1970, the entire population of red wolves was believed to be
less than 100 animals confined to a small area of coastal Texas and Louisiana. Moreover, genetic
swamping through hybridization with coyotes was recognized in the early 1960s by Carley
(1975) as a major threat to the survival of this and other remnant red wolf populations. To save
the species from extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service, USFWS) captured as
many as possible of the few remaining animals from 1974 through 1980. Only 14 captured
animals met the criteria established to define the species and stood between its existence and
extinction. These animals formed the nucleus of a captive breeding program at the Point
Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA with the final goal of reestablishing the species in
portions of its original range. Thirty one zoos and nature centers in 19 states and the District of
Columbia now cooperate in a national breeding program and are valuable partners in efforts to
restore red wolves to their natural habitat. The red wolf is now back in the wild, hunting, rearing
young, and communicating by its characteristic howl, in several locations in its original
southeastern habitats, including one mainland reintroduction site, and three island propagation
sites. The red wolf was one of the first endangered species to attract recovery attentions from the
Service after the passage of the Endangered Species Act on December 28, 1973. An interim
recovery team was appointed on August 4, 1974, and in January 1975, it received official
sanction by the Service.
The Red Wolf Recovery Program has had significant successes over its history, including
but not limited to perpetuation of the red wolf genome in captivity, third generation wild pups,
and a population distributed over one million acres. It is vital to perpetuate this success.
However, several critical issues challenge the expansion of the program to meet its recovery
goals. Primary among these issues are: (1) selection of additional restoration sites, (2) assessing
and managing the threat hybridization represents to recovery, (3) the need for an effective and
feasible monitoring program, and (4) an assessment of the role of the captive breeding program
to facilitate recovery in the wild. Because of the complexity of these issues, external expertise
and review from the scientific community was required for the development of effective
conservation action strategies. The inclusion of such expertise is consistent with the requirement
of the Service’s Strategic Plan to base decisions on sound scientific judgement. The
Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) of the IUCN / World Conservation Union has
recognized expertise in facilitated intensive, scientifically rigorous workshops that are designed
to generate creative and substantive management recommendations from participants with
potentially different viewpoints on the relevant conservation issues. After researching the utility
of the CBSG process, the Service decided to host such a workshop, known as a Population and
Habitat Viability Assessment or PHVA, and invite CBSG to facilitate to begin developing
solutions focused on the technical issues facing the recovery of the red wolf.
A red wolf PHVA workshop was conducted April 13-16, 1999 in Virginia Beach,
Virginia at the Holiday Inn Executive Center. Forty scientific and management experts in the
fields of wolf and coyote biology, wildlife biology and management, genetics, captive breeding
and population modeling attended this workshop.
