NC Alligator River NWR - Red Wolf Hike (5 miles)

The Red Wolf saved, America’s triumph; the Red Wolf lost, America’s shame

 Edward O. Wilson

In the mid-1980s I had the opportunity to join a USFWS team for few days. I was working as a ranger in South Carolina on one of the many barrier islands that was under conservation management. It was a perk of the job (there had been many!) to be asked to help out with special interagency projects and special events. This was one of those times. 

Coastal pineland grasslands, AGNWR

Three state folks, me included, had been invited to accompany federal Red Wolf biologists and a small gaggle of photographers across the sound to Bulls Island where the first experimental large predator reintroduction program was wrapping up. Since the 1970s, Bulls Island had produced 26 wolf puppies with healthy mated parents and with the new reintroduction site identified in coastal North Carolina at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) it was time to bring the Bulls Island program to an end. Moving pups and adult wolves in their metal catch crates to the boats for transport to ARNWR and other reintroduction sites around the country was one of the last special perk jobs I did before leaving South Carolina for a DNR ranger job in Maryland.  

 

Freshwater wetlands on the Albemarle Peninsula 

I may have left South Carolina but the experience of that recovery and relocation opportunity never left me. I met the men (it was all men at that time) who created the first large predator reintroduction program for wolves in the US and I'd met the Red Wolf, an all-American endemic wolf species once found from Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico to the Heartland. Before European settlement, the Red Wolf shared habitat with the Eastern Cougar and Wood Bison, all gone now. Settlement and industrial expansion eradicated all three species from the Eastern and Southeastern region as forests were logged off, wetlands were drained, and agriculture replaced rich biodiverse ecosystems with monoculture and livestock. By the mid-20th century, the Red Wolf was near extinction. 

18th century drainage ditch

For decades now I've followed the Red Wolf recovery story in all its drama, celebration, and sorrow. It hasn't been easy at all for both wolves and biologists. As a species, the survival of the Red Wolf continues to hang precariously in the balance. One of the other two state folks who were with me those few days back in the 1980s at Bulls Island, Paul, has since retired from public service and is now a full time USFWS volunteer who lives in his camper on the ARNWR with his wife who is also a volunteer. It was great to see them after so many years and talk about how that experience changed us. As his guest, he drove me down some non-public roads to see if we might catch a glimpse of one of the 16 remaining Red Wolves on the reserve. We didn't see any, but we heard some at a distance - a pack greeting of happy howls and barks. I was over the moon excited and couldn't help tearing up. I captured the very end of the greeting on my phone but it is very difficult to hear. I've listened to it a hundred times since last week.

Milltail Creek watershed- home to the famous Milltail Wolf Pack

As we returned to my truck at their campsite (where Amos had to stay) he suggested some places to hike with my dog that were open to the public and where I might - if I was very very lucky - see or hear Red Wolf activity. Bears were a certainty, he said. We had a late lunch on the picnic table by the camper and he told me about the tragic loss of a male wolf this past June that also resulted in the loss of 5 puppies. Six deaths in one summer had reduced the surviving wild population on the peninsula to just 16. I felt sure I would not see any wolves during my late afternoon hike, plus I was worried about Amos and bears. He looses his mind over bears. Off I went for a five mile hike and a promise to check back when I finished so we all could say goodbye for now. 

Sandy Ridge Trail 

We hiked the out-and-back Sandy Ridge Trail and heard a rail - dare I say King Rail? Amos saw his first alligator, a four-footer floating log-like in the canal. We then moved on to the Wynne Road where "bears are everywhere" but saw none which I wasn't sad about since I was worried about being able to control Amos and had a death-grip on his short leash. We made a loop of it using the closed-to-vehicles Hook and Osprey Roads back to Buffalo City Road and the truck. I saw and heard barred owls and woodpeckers of all kinds, plus on Buffalo City Road watched a crowd of deer being chased by something. The something never crossed the road, however. 

Cattail and Pond Pine on Wynne Road

Back at the truck, another truck pulled in. The driver looked a little shook up. He'd just come down Sawyer Lake Road (which intersects Buffalo City Road). "I don't know how it will end up," he said, "but I just watched a collared Red Wolf chase a bird dog across the road. It wasn't playing. It was hunting that dog." I was so excited for this guy who, despite having a big camera and lens, hadn't the time to react to take picture. He'd been coming to the NWR all month hoping to see a wolf, but to see this was extraordinary. That explained the deer running out of that patch of woods across the road where I saw them, I said. 

Pond Pine

I found Paul at a parking area working on some invasive plant removals, a patch of non-native privet. I told him about the wolf-dog sighting and with that the photographer pulled into the same parking lot. We all talked a good while about what he'd seen and the paradox that predator conservation often presents us with. Night was fast coming on but we stood there a bit longer with the traffic along Rt 64 whizzing by.  "The feds have just approved the funding to build a wildlife corridor underpass here," said Paul. We all agreed that it was a long time coming, especially for the most endangered wolf species in the world. 

No bears today

When we first started working with this wolf, he was 99 miles down a 100-mile-long road to extinction. We now have him identified, and we feel we have him turned around the other way. It will be a long uphill push to save him.; I don’t know if we can do it. If we decide that it is feasible, we need you to help pull; we sure are going to push. 

- Curtis Carley, first FWS Red Wolf recovery project field coordinator, 1977

Notes: 

T. Delene Beeland (2013) The Secret World of Red Wolves: The Fight to Save North America's Other Wolf. University of North Carolina Press. https://a.co/d/5eK2eZf

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge https://www.fws.gov/refuge/alligator-river

Eric Trefney's excellent piece for Rewilding Earth, "A Milestone in Red Wolf Country." 

Rewilding Earth podcast with Eric's update on the wildlife crossings in NC and other amazing rewilding efforts. Episode 139: Year-End Recap