The reintroduction of red wolves to northeastern North Carolina is the crowning achievement of a half-century of research and conservation activity that served as a model for the subsequent gray wolf reintroductions to the American Southwest and the Yellowstone region. The Wolf Conservation Center participates in this federal recovery of red wolves through its captive breeding program and by preparing candidate wolves for release into the wild. Still, recovery of the red wolf remains a challenging endeavor and includes major priorities such as supporting the existing North Carolina population, identifying additional reintroduction sites, and improving social tolerance for the presence of wolves. To meet these challenges, the Wolf Conservation Center recently expanded its role in red wolf research to improve recovery efforts and the Center’s capacity in education, outreach, and advocacy.
On September 14, 2021 at 6 pm ET, the Wolf Conservation Center's Senior Research Scientist Dr. Joseph W. Hinton hosted a webinar discussing past and present research on red wolves to illustrate how research at the WCC can be used to resolve key threats to wolves and promote recovery throughout their historical range.
Dr. Hinton summarized his past and present research on red wolves to illustrate how research at the Wolf Conservation Center can be used to resolve key threats to wolves and promote recovery throughout their historical range. Understanding and predicting how red wolves will respond to modern landscapes requires coordinated research to investigate needs of direct relevance to recovery efforts. Such research will reduce our uncertainties about wild red wolf populations, thereby improving our conservation and management of the species.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joseph Hinton earned his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia in 2014 and is the Senior Research Scientist at the Wolf Conservation Center. While at the University of Georgia, Joseph oversaw a large regional study on coyotes in the southeastern United States and focused on the ecology and interactions of red wolves and coyotes, and ecological conditions facilitating hybridization between the two. His research has focused on the ecology, management, and conservation of wildlife populations with a focus on canid communities.
