My husband (a biologist) has been out on a beach renourishment project on the upper Texas coast this last year, adjacent to the Chenier Plain Refuge Complex, and has several several coyotes that appear to be the red wolf hybrid in his estimation. He's planning on letting the refuge folks and TPWD know since it's so close to Galveston, there really should be some genetic work done in that area, too.
It's a travesty they killed the 400 other "non" wolves in the 80s.
If you ever feel like looking into more oddball USFWS work in saving endangered species, research the Florida panther sometime. It's just as bonkers. Craig Pittman wrote a book summarizing it a few years ago but there are others who've written about it a few decades ago, some with questionable veracity.
My husband (a biologist) has been out on a beach renourishment project on the upper Texas coast this last year, adjacent to the Chenier Plain Refuge Complex, and has several several coyotes that appear to be the red wolf hybrid in his estimation. He's planning on letting the refuge folks and TPWD know since it's so close to Galveston, there really should be some genetic work done in that area, too.
It's a travesty they killed the 400 other "non" wolves in the 80s.
If you ever feel like looking into more oddball USFWS work in saving endangered species, research the Florida panther sometime. It's just as bonkers. Craig Pittman wrote a book summarizing it a few years ago but there are others who've written about it a few decades ago, some with questionable veracity.
I acutally *have* written about the Florida panther, but didn't go into the same depth: https://southlands.substack.com/p/florida-panther?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fpanther&utm_medium=reader2
I did quote Pittman, though: "This being Florida, there’s going to be a little weirdness sprinkled into this tale."