RedWolf_LastFewWolves_Dorsett_John_AthensTX_14June2021_Reel4057.mp3

John Dorsett [00:00:00] Well, you know, from the historical records, it looked like the red wolf, you know, went up in central Texas and then up into the southeast United States at one time. Apparently, they were down in those areas.

John Dorsett [00:00:14] And predators, of course, you know, what you read in the literature was that there was, you know, bounties on them. There was hunting pressure, there was habitat loss, which caused some decline.

John Dorsett [00:00:30] And, but apparently the, I guess, what was the biggest detriment to them was that they would interbreed with coyotes and there was getting to be a lot of coyotes in that area and of course it caused to be hybrids. And then apparently with the, you know, you get more animals, it just dilutes the species.

John Dorsett [00:00:59] And apparently, when I got on the program, just the last few wolves were down there in pretty much southern Liberty, kind of, really if you took Interstate 10 as your northern boundary, most all the wolves we caught were south of that, down towards the coast and mainly.

John Dorsett [00:01:19] And kind of started off, we were even working some over towards Angleton, in that area, but they were, we didn't find any there. So it's pretty much from Chambers County where Anahuac is, and then Jefferson County, where Beaumont is, and then some over in southwest Louisiana in Calcasieu Parish and Cameron Parish. I never did work in Cameron Parish, but Calcasieu, which is right across the Sabine River, we caught some animals over there that were, we thought, were wolves.

John Dorsett [00:01:54] But, anyway, I guess the hybridization was the biggest threat. And when we started, when I first got down there, they kind of talked about trying to establish a buffer zone where you would try to trap out the hybrids and coyotes, you know, north of that area where the wolves were.

John Dorsett [00:02:11] But that was that was just an impossible task. You couldn't have had enough trappers. And even if you had, you couldn't, you know, caught enough to stop them from influx into the rest of the red wolf area. And plus, there was already some hybrids down there already.

John Dorsett [00:02:31] So they decided pretty quick that a buffer zone wasn't going to work. And that probably the best bet would be a captive breeding program.