In 2016, the USFWS announced it would stop the protection plan and round up the survivors to put them in captivity. It was postponed after public outcry, but now the new federal plan, which was proposed by USFWS late last month, again has conservationists deeply fearful for the future of the species.
“The USFWS rightly notes that landowner support is critical to the future of red wolf recovery,” Wheeler said. “But that support can’t be achieved through the unregulated hunting and trapping of red wolves that happen to wander onto private land. This claim, offered without any evidence to uphold it, defies both history and common sense and ignores the fact that humans are the root cause of most red wolf mortalities.”