The Secret World of Red Wolves by T. DeLene Beeland

Author:T. DeLene Beeland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2013-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

Paradiso’s take on why hybridization became widespread was a very different interpretation than the idea that simple habitat destruction and alteration had frayed existing social structures and allowed hybridization, which implied that a behavioral-ecological barrier had previously prevented interbreeding. What he argued was that the unique mosaic of eastern and western habitats in the Edwards Plateau allowed coyotes an unusual gateway through which to spread eastward. Within the plateau, they intermingled with a shrinking population of red wolves under pressure from habitat destruction and persecution. The red wolves’ dwindling numbers may have been what drove it to breed with coyotes within this mosaic habitat where they came into contact. The resulting hybrid swarm then placed an extreme biological pressure on the remaining true red wolves that dwelled in the swamps and no-man’s-land along the Texas-Louisiana border.

But the red wolf’s luck was about to change dramatically. One man in particular built upon the detective work of Nowak, Paradiso, and McCarley to lead the red wolf out from the gaping jaws of extinction. When FWS agents began looking for someone to head up a field station in southeastern Texas to manage the last wild red wolves, Curtis J. Carley’s skill set was deemed the most qualified. Carley, a coyote ecologist with a highly analytical mind, could track and catch song dogs with ease. His superiors gambled that he could use his coyote knowledge base, as well as his muddy-boots field biology know-how, to morph into a red wolf expert. Canis rufus sure needed one.

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