In a letter sent on November 30, 2016, dozens of scientists with expertise in ecology, genetics and other areas relevant to wolf conservation have urged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to promote, not curtail, red wolf recovery.

“Wild red wolves now face a perilously high risk of extinction. The Service’s recent actions seem consistent with abandoning red wolves rather than recovering them,” said Dr. John Vucetich, a professor and scientist at Michigan Technological University. “The Service has not adequately justified shifting resources away from the wild population. The most prudent action, by far, would be to protect the existing red wolf population in North Carolina and identifying new reintroduction sites elsewhere in the Southeast.”

More from Center for Biological Diversity.

This letter represents the latest of a warning coming from the scientific community re: USFWS’s new plan and how it “will no doubt result in the extinction of red wolves in the wild.”

TAKE ACTION — Please tell Interior Secretary Sally Jewell that USFWS, the very agency charged by federal law with protecting endangered species, must recommit to red wolf recovery in the wild.