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Plant-Based & Vegan Active Updated Aug 18, 2026

The red wolf's fragile second chance at survival

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.

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