Government Study Confirms Endangered Red Wolves Are a Separate Species Worthy of Protection

One of the most endangered wolves in the world is indeed its own species. That’s the important finding of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report released Thursday, which determined that red wolves are genetically distinct from gray wolves and coyotes.

The finding is a boon to conservationists, who have been arguing for continued protections for the approximately 35 red wolves left in the wild. After being nearly wiped out from their historic range in the eastern U.S., the endangered species was reintroduced to an area in eastern North Carolina in 1987, but last spring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed to limit their territories to public lands and allow landowners to shoot or trap them if they entered private property.