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Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Monday, September 29, 2014

Red wolf video

Red wolf video
Posted by Coyotes, Wolves and Cougars forever at 6:23 PM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thought I'd do a bit more rambling on about Red Wolves--looks like some of this video was shot at the release sight in Cades Cove in the Great Smokies National Park, during the Red Wolf release program there, back in the 1990's. Coincidentally, I actually lived nearby, and worked just over the ridge from Cades Cove at the time(I'm living in Mid-state N. C. now, working at the N. C. Zoo, but missing those mountains fiercely!), so was privy to a lot of the information about this project, official and UNofficial! What was really aggravating to me, is that one reason(among several) that the project got canceled, is that some of the Red Wolves were targeting calves that local people were allowed to graze in Cades Cove, even though it was IN the National Park!!! One reason cows were allowed was to keep the open grazing areas(note the barbed wire fences in part of the video), since it represented a former historical Appalachian Mountain Community(a lot of old cabins and houses are preserved there as well) HEAVILY visited by tourists. I always complained--"GET RID OF THE DAMN COWS!!!" You can raise cows ANYWHERE--git 'em outta the National Park! Geez! Don't CANCEL an endangered species reintroduction program over a few bloody cows! They MOW other areas they wish to keep clear in the Park, no problem! Also ELK finally got reintroduced to the park and do a lot of grazing(we need Woodland Bison here next!). They DID finally chuck(literally!) the cattle, and get rid of the fences(at long last), but alas, the "pure" Red Wolves were removed before then. Except, of course, there are plenty of coyotes, including quite a few "hybrids" left behind! So some strain of Red Wolf bloodlines DO live on there(unofficial as that is!). And WE WILL have Cougars/Pumas/Panthers again one day, just a matter of time!.....L.B.

September 30, 2014 at 12:26 PM
Anonymous said...

...and some more Red Wolf rambling....the HOWLS you hear in this video do indeed sound like SOME Red Wolf howls, but have obviously been carefully selected, as many photos/videos of Red Wolves are. In representing Red Wolves to the general public, individuals that are quite distinct from coyotes are almost always chosen, but in reality, many Red Wolves are MUCH more coyote-like in many characteristics. Take the howling, for example--I am lucky as heck, because where I work(at the N. C. Zoo), I get to hear the Red Wolves howling all the time! They were singing this morning, in fact! They often do on these cool, crisp fall mornings!(whereas, incidentally, the wild Coyotes in this area almost never howl--certainly nothing near as much as our captive Red Wolves). And though you occasionally hear one of those singular, somewhat Grey Wolf-like howls, MOSTLY, they yip and yap identically to Coyotes, except perhaps an octave or two lower. But I don't think I've ever heard this actual Coyote-like howling utilized to represent Red Wolves on any video or documentary! The desire to try and represent Red Wolves as distinct from Coyotes, no doubt. There is actually a LOT of variance in this "species"--some of the smaller individuals are VERY Coyote-like--almost impossible to visually tell them apart. Then you get the occasional WHOPPER that, did you see it running in the woods, would think was a Grey Wolf for sure! We have a big 90 pounder here at the zoo(and he IS NOT overweight from obesity!), a "pure" Red Wolf that looks AMAZINGLY like a Grey! And if you read the older accounts(like Stanley P. Young's "Wolves Of North America"), it is commented on that wherever Red Wolves ranges bordered Grey Wolves, they tended to be more Grey Wolf-like, and where they bordered Coyote range(still limited to the western plains and deserts in those days), they tended to be more Coyote-like--so this crossing has been going on all along, no doubt. And rather than despair of it as if it as some taboo thing(like some Nazi eugenicist), Canid researchers SHOULD be fascinated and studying this phenomenon like crazy! Some few are, at least.....Of course some forms of media don't help in the distinguishing and facts regarding these animals--I remember the old Marty Stouffer documentary supposedly about Red Wolves, back when there were still a few originals left in the wild(before the reintroduction program) that--to me at least--were OBVIOUSLY captive Coyotes filmed in a large natural compound--the "den" for their pups nothing but an obviously manmade brush pile! And the howls dubbed in for those Coyotes was definitely a Grey Wolf howl! No wonder people get confused.....L. B.

October 1, 2014 at 6:33 AM
Coyotes, Wolves and Cougars forever said...

L.B............smart accounting on your part that where gray and red wolves mingled at the east/west margins of their respective territories, hybridization took place and the result was a more gray wold type offspring...........Also where coyotes and red wolves intersected, hybrid offspring would be more coyote like...........I just bought the Stanley P Young Wolf book you cited .............Also, Marty Stouffer is a personal friend,,,,,,,,,,I actually sold the reruns of WILD AMERICA TO 180 tv stations around the USA back in 1998.........and there are still a handful of stations running the show..........."REMEMBER,,,,,,ENJOY YOUR WILD AMERICA"

October 1, 2014 at 7:25 PM
Anonymous said...

Though many consider Stanley P. Young's wolf books outdated now, I think they are still valuable as an historical resource--I'm sure you'll enjoy your copy, and refer to it repeatedly, as I do mine! Though considered unrealistically anthropormiphic by many, his book on the "last" OUTLAW wolves of the west is a great read, and reading between the unscientific lines, it is STILL INCREDIBLE how savvy and cunning some of those last holdout wolves were--also well worth your time--titled "Last Of the Loners"--if you don't already have it, that is! And of course, since grey wolf reintroductions, those last "outlaws" were hardly the "last" wolves out west, hallelujah! But at the time that book was published, no one would have believed something like the wolf reintroductions would occur one day.... Though a wolf "controller", Young still obviously had great admiration and even affection for the animals his culture and job forced him to help eradicate--I think he would be THRILLED at their return!.....Also--I DID ENJOY Stouffer's "Wild America"(if only because it was one of only a very few animal documentary shows around, in those days), but hungering for some REAL footage on REAL Red Wolves at the time(virtually NOTHING around in those days--still not much today!), you can imagine my disappointment when I watched this segment of Stouffer's to see only captive coyotes with dubbed grey wolf howls! But, standards were quite different so long ago, and scientific accuracy not necessarily considered a priority! Come to think of it, it still isn't sometimes! But usually no one but a total animal geek like myself notices or cares! They need to do a good, comprehensive popular documentary on Red Wolves and their program on "Nature" or something--I mean, hey, they did one on the coywolves already! Which I bought and really enjoyed, by the way.....

October 6, 2014 at 10:00 AM
Coyotes, Wolves and Cougars forever said...

L.B...............I also bought the Nature Coywolf tape............enjoyed it as well...........I will let you know about Young's books....

Marty Stouffer's WILD AMERICA was 2nd to none during it's 12 year run on PBS,,,,,,,,and like you, I watched everyone of em scores of times--also own all his dvd episodes..........Focusing on the Americas rather than Africa and South Ameria, Wild America was as good as Ntl Geo, Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, etc, etc...........35 milemeter photog that put you in the woods with actual sound.............Even if some was staged, any viewer watching came away with an appreciation of the USA's natural world, 2nd to none.

October 6, 2014 at 7:07 PM

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