Red wolf genetics have been a very hot topic since their listing on the Endangered Species Act in 1967. It has been argued whether or not the red wolf (Canis rufus) is a unique species, a subspecies of grey wolf (Canis lupus), or hybrid between the grey wolf and coyote (Canis latrans). A lot of research has gone into the topic, and it has since been confirmed that the red wolf is a unique species that has a long evolutionary history that is intertwined with coyotes.

This intertwined history has led to the red wolf population that exists today, but it has also created a large problem with conservation of the species. Due to the genetic relation between red wolves and coyotes, the two species are able to mate and reproduce viable offspring. This means that, as the two species breed, the already limited red wolf gene pool becomes more and more diluted with coyote genes. This makes conservation efforts difficult because conserving the genetics of the species is essential to keeping a healthy population that is capable of increasing in numbers.

There is a population of coyotes on Galveston Island, Texas that have a very interesting, and mysterious, evolutionary history. It was noticed by a resident of the area that the coyotes in Galveston Island seemed larger than those in the surrounding area and that they did not quite seem like red wolves. This sparked research into the canids in the area and it was found that these animals are a sort of hybrid between a coyote and a red wolf.

While this is fairly common throughout the range of red wolves, these coyotes had something strange about them that other hybrids did not. It was not until genetic research was done that the missing piece was found. It turned out that these hybrids had 21 "ghost alleles" that could not be traced to any other canid population in the world. This was a confusing discovery because these alleles had to come from somewhere and it was unlikely that they originated in this small population. The consensus became that these alleles likely originated in ancient red wolves and were passed down through coyotes and red wolves. However, as red wolves were extirpated from their historic range, these genes were also removed. At some point though, these genes were passed into the coyote population on Galveston Island and were able to remain safe there due to the inability of emigration and immigration of coyotes to the island.

These ghost wolves have important implications on the recovery of the red wolf population in eastern North Carolina. If there is a way for scientists to isolate these genes then it could unlock some insight into red wolf populations prior to their removal. Additionally, introducing these genes carefully into the population could be useful in terms of diversifying the limited gene pool that began with only 12 red wolves.

There is a long history on inter-breeding between red wolves (Canis rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans). Historically, hybridization of the last red wolves with coyotes was the single biggest threat to the red wolf’s recovery. This prompted the FWS to begin capturing the last wolves for breeding in captivity. The coyotes infiltrated the Red Wolf Recovery Area in the 1990’s, and in 1999 coyotes and hybridization became the most imminent threat to the red wolf species survival. In response to this threat, in 2000, there was an active management plan (AMP) that was implemented to address red wolf/coyote hybridization. Twelve years later, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) created a temporary rule that allows the night hunting of coyotes with artificial lights across the states. This rule puts the red wolves at risk. In the same year, however, the court suspended the night hunting of coyotes with artificial lights within the Red Wolf Recovery Area.

In 2013, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recognized the need to improve the management of the non-essential experimental population. In the same year, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission created a permanent rule that allows coyote hunting on private land day or night, day hunting on public lands without a permit and night hunting with a permit. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also signed the Canid Management Agreement.

In 2014, an independent evaluation of the non-essential experimental red wolf population was conducted by the Wildlife Management Institute. The court ordered a ban on all coyote hunting in the area (preliminary injunction). This preliminary injunction was replaced with a settlement agreement between the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the plaintiffs that allows the hunting of coyotes on private land with a permit and no hunting on public lands (with narrow exception). This history has made scientists question the existence of the red wolf as a distinct species.

Genetic Theories of Red Wolves

There were three theories, each very different, that have attempted to peg the red wolf's elusive origins:

The first theory, originated by mammalogist Ronald Nowak, asserts that a prototype of the red wolf arose from Eurasia from a common ancestor shared with gray wolves. In this scenario, these proto-red wolves were early biological invaders into North America that then completed their speciation into what we now know as the red wolf in the Southeast’s forests.

The second theory, originated by population geneticist Robert Wayne and dubbed the hybrid-origin theory, states that red wolves are a relatively recent product of hybridization between coyotes and gray wolves, possibly as recent as the last several hundred years. Initially, there were two scenarios for how hybridization may have happened. One scenario is when the European settlers exterminated red wolves, habitat degradation may have led to gray wolves and coyotes coming into contact and breeding with each other. The other scenario is that hybridization may have occurred much deeper in the past.

The third and final theory, conceived by wildlife geneticists Paul J. Wilson and Brad White and dubbed the shared-ancestry theory, states that red wolves and eastern gray wolves share an evolutionary history and that they both evolved in North America independently from gray wolves. Eastern gray wolves (Canis lupus lycaon or Canis lycaon) exist today in a small population on the northeastern side of the Great Lakes. Although eastern gray wolves are classified as a gray wolf subspecies, some scientists think that they aren’t gray wolves at all and that they ought to be given their own species designation. In this scenario, eastern gray wolves and red wolves are more closely related to each other than to any other canid, and that they arose from a lineage shared with the coyote. This idea, like the unique-origin theory, places red wolves’ origins as independent from those of gray wolves, but it differs from Nowak’s theory in that it posits that red wolves share an evolutionary history with the coyote lineage and not the gray wolf lineage.

It was stated that if hybridization was actually part of their natural history, then some researchers advocated for the continued protection of red wolves, but if it was caused by humans then they advocated that the red wolves weren’t a high priority for conservation. In other words, if humans had created the red wolf, it was perceived as being far less valuable than if Mother Nature had created it.

When a red wolf can’t find a suitable mate, they’ve been known to have a litter with a coyote. Since 2004, the biologists calculate that breeding individuals compose 73% of the red wolves shot illegally, or poached. Losing a breeder breaks up packs, which in turn leads to single, dispersing red wolves becoming more vulnerable to intraspecific aggression. It can also equate to pups or juveniles losing parental protection that they need during these times. Losing a breeder also puts the pack’s territory at risk, as fertile coyotes have been observed to move into those territories shortly after the disruption of a breeding pair. But perhaps the most interesting result was that 13 of the 31 hybrid litters were produced after a stable breeding pair of red wolves were broken apart. Seven of these dissolutions occurred because a breeder had been shot and killed, while 2 more involved the death of a breeder from poison or trap injuries; in all, 9 of the 13 broken pairs were attributed to human actions.

The management teams developed protocols to obtain blood samples from all the puppies of every litter they can locate. It’s an invasive process for any wild animal, let alone an endangered one, but getting the blood samples has also become a vital monitoring step to prevent the offspring from coyote and wolf crosses from getting into the red wolf population. Once the management team finds the hybrid litter, they unfortunately have no choice but to euthanize the whole litter. This is emphasized on page 42 of The Secret World of Red Wolves: The Fight to Save North America’s Other Wolf, stating that, “One additional litter was later found, but the blood tests revealed these pups were hybrids. The team had to euthanize the whole batch, a task no one relished.” As hard and as horrible as this action is, these hybrid litters can’t be allowed to stay in the Red Wolf Recovery Area because their presence jeopardizes the genetic integrity of the red wolf’s recovery. Nor can they be adopted out from animal shelters because they are wild and don’t make good pets, which leaves the red wolf program with little wiggle room.