Today Got Better
Subscribe

Solutions & Good News Active Updated Aug 18, 2026

Are wolves and tigers coming back to the wild?

Bringing apex predators back from the brink

Where it stands as of Sep 4, 2026

North Carolina's wild red wolf population, down from around 120 to 130 animals in 2011 to fewer than 30, produced four litters and 23 pups this year, with roughly 12 to 16 expected to survive their first months. In Kazakhstan, a female Amur tiger named Hope was released into an unfenced reserve after a decade of reforestation and rebuilding of prey species. Whether this year's pups live long enough to rebuild the population is not yet known.

The red wolf, deliberately pulled entirely from the wild in 1980 to save it from extinction, rebuilt a small population that later collapsed from gunshots, vehicle strikes and coyote hybridization. Every wolf alive today descends from just 14 founding animals, and the entire wild population lives in a few flood-prone counties of one North Carolina peninsula. The stakes are whether new litters and a landowner-payment program can rebuild a self-sustaining wild population before another setback wipes it out again.

The story so far

  1. Aug 18, 2026 Latest

    One Green Planet reported that North Carolina's wild red wolf population, which collapsed from around 120 to 130 animals in 2011 to fewer than 30 after gunshots, vehicle strikes and coyote hybridization, produced four litters and 23 pups this year, with roughly 12 to 16 expected to survive their first months.

    Today Got Better

  2. Aug 8, 2026

    A female Amur tiger named Hope was released into Kazakhstan's unfenced Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve, fitted with a GPS collar, after a decade of reforestation and rebuilding prey species including Bukhara deer, saiga antelope and kulan. A male named Amur remains captive until he proves he can hunt on his own, and two cubs from Russia's Khabarovsk Reserve will grow up semi-wild until they are tested for release around 18 months old.

    Today Got Better

This story moves with the morning letter.

When this question gets a new answer, the page above changes the same morning. Each morning's letter brings the day's progress in science, medicine and beyond. Free, every day.