The Red Wolf That Once Roamed The Appalachians

The Red Wolf once roamed these Appalachian Blue Ridge Hills and the Southeastern United States in abundant numbers. Now there are only 15 to 17 wild Red Wolves in the Eastern United States and only 241 Red Wolves in captivity. Their numbers are truly at an unstable and scary number, but each litter of pups produced is helping this species come back from its critically endangered population.

Red Wolves once roamed almost the entire Eastern side of the United States including as far North as Pennsylvania and as far South as the Mexico and Texas border. The Red Wolf is known as “America’s Wolf” because it’s the only species that lived entirely within the boundaries of the United States without extending into Canada and Mexico.

In November 1991, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park released the first Red Wolf family into the park. In 1992 two more families were released in Cades Cove and Tremont. Around 40 Red Wolf pups were born inside The Great Smoky Mountains National Park but sadly parvo became a big issue with the pups surviving to adulthood.

Struggling with disease and starvation due to the Coyotes competing with the Wolves for food, the park decided that it would be best to end the Red Wolf experiment in The Great Smoky Mountains and to go ahead and recapture the radio collared Wolves. All but one known Red Wolf was recaptured so there’s always going to be that hope that maybe one more unknown Red Wolf remained in the park and the population still might have hopes of returning.

This all being said keep your eyes peeled in the Appalachians because you never know what you’re going to see!