A Wildlife Tragedy Waiting to Happen

On behalf of several wildlife protection groups, SELC has gone to court to challenge a temporary state rule that allows spotlight hunting of coyotes at night throughout North Carolina, including the area inhabited by the world’s only wild population of red wolves. The free-roaming red wolves—about 100 in number—are easily mistaken for coyotes even in daylight.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently investigating the illegal take of a radio-collared red wolf that was found dead in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, on September 4. Gunshots are the greatest single cause of death for red wolves, which were reintroduced on North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula after becoming extinct in the wild. Read more »