12/15/2023 0 Comments Download red wolf medical alarm![]() It was, you know … all wolves were heavily persecuted, but the red wolves were heavily persecuted to the point that only 14 were left. It's been the underdog scientifically it's been the underdog for conservation. Samuels: That’s Kristin Brzeski, an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University, whose research focuses on the conservation of genetics of wild animal populations.īrzeski: I think, what captures the imagination with the red wolf, and I think this work, is it, it's been the underdog. And now there's a fair amount of inbreeding in the species because you can't help it when you have so few founders. Kristin Brzeski: The species has gone through this huge bottleneck and through that lost a lot of genetic variation. In 1980 their wild relatives were declared extinct-the captured wolves were all that was left. To conserve the species, 14 individuals were captured as part of a breeding program. But by 1972 the population was reduced to only roaming a small area along the Gulf coast due to habitat loss and hunting. The historic range of these rust-colored canines stretched from Long Island across to Missouri and down to the Texas-Mexico border. ![]() ![]() The red wolf once roamed a huge swath of the eastern United States. Samuels: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Fionna Samuels. ![]()
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