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SCIENCEThursday 23 July 2015
Summit to weigh endangered red wolf’s plight as numbers drop
By JIM SALTER about 50 from 100 in the
Associated Press past five years, officials at
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Wolf ex- the St. Louis Endangered
perts from around the na- Wolf Center said Tuesday.
tion will be gathering this The matter took on more
week to consider how to urgency recently when the
help the critically endan- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
gered red wolf. suspended the reintroduc-
The red wolf population in tion of captive wolves into
the wild, all in eastern North the wild until it could study
Carolina, has dropped to the value of the release
Study: DNA reveals
new wrinkle about
settlement of Americas
MALCOLM RITTER of Harvard Medical School. This September 2014 photo provided by the Endangered Wolf Center shows two red wolves at the
AP Science Writer He reported the work with center in Eureka, Mo.
NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists colleagues in a paper re-
have discovered a previ- leased Tuesday by the jour- Associated Press
ously unknown source of nal Nature.
ancestry for some native Population Y provided only program. about `the big bad wolf’ The Fish and Wildlife Service
peoples in Brazil, suggest- a fraction of the DNA now Experts meeting Wednes- is vital if we are to ensure said nearly 200 red wolves
ing a new wrinkle in the sto- found in the Amazonian day through Friday in sub- their long term viability,” exist in captive breeding
ry of the settlement of the peoples. It’s not clear when urban St. Louis will make Busch said. facilities. That includes four
Americas. The finding does they left the land bridge, breeding and relocation The red wolf was declared at the Endangered Wolf
not change the broad in comparison to the pre- recommendations, discuss extinct in the wild in 1980, Center.
outlines of what scientists viously recognized immi- population viability and when only 14 pure red Busch said about 30 mem-
believe: that the Americas grants, Reich said. But they hear from government of- wolves remained to begin bers of the Red Wolf Spe-
were settled by people clearly arrived in Amazo- ficials involved with the re- breeding programs, said cies Survival Plan will at-
who crossed a now-sub- nia long ago and it should introduction program. Busch. Four pairs of red tend the conference. They
merged land bridge from be considered a second Red wolves once roamed wolves were released into represent zoos, research
Siberia to North America founder group, he said. much of the eastern third North Carolina’s Alligator centers and other agen-
more than 15,000 years The paper provides the of the U.S., from the Ohio River National Wildlife Ref- cies from around the coun-
ago. Then they made their first robust evidence that River Valley into Missouri uge in 1987, and remains try.
way south, and their DNA some native populations of and as far south as Texas the only place in the world “It is incumbent on us both
has been found in native the Americas trace part of and Florida. The red wolf where red wolves exist in to continue our efforts to
peoples. This founder pop- their ancestry to a second was designated as endan- the wild. sustain the population, as
ulation drew its heritage source, said Deborah Bol- gered in 1967, and the Fish Cindy Dohner, southeast well as ramp up education
from Siberia and people nick of the University of Tex- and Wildlife Service began regional director for the and public understanding
related to modern East as at Austin, who was not efforts to save the species. Fish and Wildlife Service, about the need to save
Asians. Now, DNA from involved in the work. It sug- Major threats to red wolves said in June that suspend- these amazing animals,”
modern-day people indi- gests that the history of the are hunters who mistake ing reintroduction is part of she said in a statement.
cates that another popula- native populations “is more them for coyotes, and the “our commitment to get The Endangered Wolf Cen-
tion also crossed the land complicated than previ- belief they are dangerous the science right, rebuild ter is a nonprofit founded
bridge and contributed to ously thought,” she said. and aggressive toward hu- trust with our neighbors in in 1971 by zoologist Marlin
the heritage of some mod- A second study, released mans, said Virginia Busch, those communities, our Perkins, a St. Louis native
ern-day natives of Amazo- Tuesday by the journal executive director of the state partners and many best known as the host of
nian Brazil, researchers say. Science, detected a simi- Endangered Wolf Center. stakeholders as we address TV’s “Mutual of Omaha
This second group, dubbed lar signal in an Amazo- “Educating the public and issues regarding the overall Wild Kingdom,” who died
“Population Y,” had its roots nian native group, as well dispelling misconceptions recovery of the red wolf.” in 1986.q
in an Asian population that as Aleutian Islanders. But
no longer exists, but which the researchers conclud-
also left a genetic finger- ed the DNA showed up
print in modern native peo- relatively recently, after
ples of Australia and New the initial peopling of the
Guinea, said David Reich Americas.q
