As many of you know, North Carolina now allows hunters to use spotlights in their night hunting of Coyotes................We have discussed in this past weeks Blog entries how night lighting, baiting and other "man made instruments" to aid unskilled hunters violates the North American Model of Conservation and puts Coyotes truly "under the gun" year round in so many states..................Now the RED WOLF COALITION and other environmental Groups have sued the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission in an attempt to overturn "night lighting" so that the reintroduced Red Wolf population of about 100 animals has a further chance to expand and multiply..........................Red Wolves and Coyotes readily hybridize especially when there is a dearth of Red Wolves in a given region(male red wolves will often seek out female coyotes if female red wolves are not available to mate with).................To prevent wolves interbreeding with coyotes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sterilizes coyotes that have territories within red wolf habitat............... Shooting sterilized coyotes harms the native red wolf population by undermining these effective coyote population control efforts..................We want both a viable Red Wolf and Coyote population at play across the Eastern Seaboard in the future and we hope that this lawsuit is settled in favor of both the Songdogs and Lobos

Groups Seek to  Protect Red  Wolves in  Recovery Area Conservation organizations today challenged North Carolina Wildlife  Resource Commission's authorization  of coyote hunting—including by spotlight  at night—in the five county  area of eastern North Carolina  inhabited by the world's only wild population  of about 100 red wolves.  The Southern Environmental  Law Center filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on  behalf of the Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Animal  Welfare Institute. "Mistaken identity is a lethal, but preventable , threat to the world's only  wild population of endangered  red wolves," said Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney at the Southern  Environmental Law Center who  represents the groups. "Gunshot is the  leading cause of death for these  rare animals, and allowing the hunting of coyotes in core red wolf habitat  substantially increases the risk  to red wolves." Red wolves and coyotes are similar in  appearance so red wolves are frequently mistaken for coyotes,  even in daylight. "Coyote hunting has a catastrophic effect on the red wolf population,"  said Kim Wheeler, executive director of the Red Wolf Coalition. "Continuing this practice will threaten the survival of red wolves on  the landscape." Since 2008, 20 red wolves died from  confirmed gunshot. Gunshot  was the suspected cause of death for  an additional 18 wolves. Five tracking  collars cut from red wolves were also found during this period,  indicating to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel that wolve s may have been shot and disposed of unlawfully. Since 2012, five shooters who killed red wolves reported to authorities that they had mistaken the wolves for coyotes. By authorizing the shooting of coyotes  within the Red Wolf Recovery  Area, the commission is causing  unlawful take (i.e., harass, harm, hunt,  or kill) of the red wolf. In July,  the law center notified the commission that it was in violation of the federal Endangered Species  Act by allowing hunting of coyotes within the Red Wolf Recovery Area  and the groups would file a federal  enforcement action unless the  commission took steps to protect  the wolves. "Following the mandate of the Endangered Species Act, the federal  government has gone to great lengths to reintroduce the red wolf  into the wild and provide for its recovery," said Tara Zuardo, wildlife attorney with the Animal Welfare Institute. "For a state  agency to encourage hunting— in the middle of the recovery area —of an animal that cannot readily  be distinguished from the red  wolf, and to further sanction such  hunting at night, defies logic and certainly sabotages red wolf recovery." As of July 26, 2013, the commission authorized coyote hunting both  during the day and at night with  artificial spotlights within the Red Wolf Recovery Area. Prior to this  permanent regulation going into  effect in July, a temporary rule that legalized spot light hunting of coyotes at night in North Carolina  was in effect from August 2012 until November 2012 when it was  suspended by Wake County Superior  Court in a lawsuit brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Red Wolf  Coalition, Animal Welfare Institute, and Defenders of Wildlife. To prevent wolves interbreeding  with coyotes—another threat to the wolf population—the U.S. Fish  and Wildlife Service sterilizes coyotes  that have territories within red wolf habitat. Shooting sterilized  coyotes also harms the native red wolf population by undermining effective coyote population contro l efforts. "There are many good reasons to prohibit coyote hunting in red wolf habitat, and not a single one to allow it that stands up to scrutiny," said Jason Rylander, attorney  for Defenders of Wildlife. "Killing  coyotes should never take precedence  over protecting red wolves." North Carolina is home to the world's  only wild population of red  wolves. Red wolves bred in captivity  were reintroduced on a North Carolina  peninsula within their native range in the late 1980's after red  wolves were declared extinct in the  wild. Once common throughout  the Southeast, intensive predator control programs and loss of habitat eliminated wild red wolf populations.