Coyotes move in old wolf ranges in increasing numbers in the southeastern US threatening increased hybridization with the few remaining red wolves.

Red wolves considered fully extirpated from Southern Atlantic States.

The last red wolves extirpated east of the Mississippi.

Disagreement over classification of red wolves continues as research by Barbara Lawrence and William Bossert of Harvard contends red wolves should be treated as a subspecies of the gray wolf.

Study on the brains of canids by Dillon and Atkins confirms distinct and primitive characteristics of the red wolf from the gray wolf.

Intensive capture efforts begin to start the captive-breeding program.

Report published by Ferrell et al. supports classification of red wolf as a distinct species through the identification of an allele unique to red wolves.

Since 1974, 400 canids were captured in LA and TX for the red wolf recovery program. Of these,14 will become the genetically pure breeding stock for all future generations of red wolves.

After months of public hearings, the TN Wildlife Resources Agency and the KY Department of Fish and Wildlife unanimously reject a USFWS proposal to release red wolves in Land Between the Lakes.

Prudential Insurance Co. donates 120,000 acres of swamp and pocosin (southeaster shrub bog) habitat for the creation of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) in North Carolina.

Two litters born in the wild to red wolves in ARNWR.

Second island propagation project initiated with release of red wolves on Horn Island of the coast of Mississippi.

Third island propagation project begins with release of red wolves on St. Vincent Island off the Gulf coast of Florida. Pocosin Lakes NWR established on land within red wolf experimental population boundaries in eastern NC.

Second reintroduction project started with red wolves released in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP).

Second generation of wild red wolves born on private land near ARNWR.

42 red wolves roam in the wild.

By this point 27 pups have been born in the wild from released wolves – all but two have survived.

31 individuals form CROWN (Citizens Rights Over Wolves Now) in opposition to the presence of red wolves on private land and concern with the role of reintroduced red wolves in the ecosystem.

Senator Jesse Helms, NC, proposes legislation to cancel all federal funding for the red wolf recovery program. Legislation is defeated in the Senate by a vote of 50-48.

North Carolina House Bill 2006 “An Act to Allow the Trapping and Killing of Red Wolves by Owners of Private Land” goes into effect. This state law applies to two of the five counties in the reintroduction area.

Revised federal regulations are published addressing some private landowner concerns regarding red wolves on their property.

Approximately 56 red wolves exist in the wild.

Several wolf hybrid litters confirmed in the wild. Intensive management efforts begin to prevent red wolf-coyote hybridization events.

Based on all available commercial and scientific information, the USFWS finds the 1995 petition to delist the red wolf unwarranted. The scientific classification remains as Canis rufus.

Two North Carolina counties and two individuals file suit against the federal government to invalidate federal regulations regarding the “taking of red wolves on private land.”

USFWS and National Park Service announces plans to end efforts to restore red wolves in the GSMNP due to low pup survival and inability of wolves to establish home ranges within the park. They recapture and relocate all the remaining red wolves in GSMNP after 26 of the 37 wolves released since 1991 have died or had to be recaptured after straying onto private lands.

The court upholds federal authority to regulate the “taking of red wolves” in the lawsuit filed in 1997.

Total red wolf population estimated at 260: about 73 in the wild in NC, one in the wild in GSMNP, about 11 on three island propagation sites, and 176 in 34 captive breeding facilities. Nearly 100% of the wild red wolves in NC were born in the wild.

Horn Island removed from the island propagation program because of increased probability of interactions with humans.

Due to concerns over coyote-red wolf hybridization, the USFWS implements an adaptive management plan to minimize hybridization.

The 1998 court decision to uphold the federal authority to regulate the “taking of red wolves” is appealed by the plaintiffs.

USFWS continues attempts to control coyote-red wolf hybridization by killing or sterilizing them. Sterilized hybrids are collared and re-released so that they hold territories but do not breed.

2 captive pups from the North Carolina Zoological Park are placed with a wild mother in eastern N. Carolina. This is the first attempt at fostering captive born red wolf pups with a wild mother.

147 red wolves in captivity: 100 in the wild (72 radio-collared and tracked – 21 sterilized hybrids and coyotes also tracked). 9 red wolf litters (40 pups) born in the wild.

September 18 hurricane Isabel directly hit Alligator River NWR and decimated the Sandy Ridge captive red wolf facility killing male wolf 520M.

The first GPS collar is used in the recovery program on a red wolf-coyote hybrid to track his movements.

Biologists are matching lone wolves of the opposite sex in an attempt to head-off non-wolf/wolf pairs and reduce hybridization in recovery areas where wolf density is low.

In June, the USFWS announced it would halt red wolf reintroductions pending an examination of its recovery program. This press release has all the details.

In June, the USFWS estimated that there were between 45 and 60 wild red wolves living in North Carolina.

In September, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina issued a preliminary injunction that orders the USFWS to stop capturing and killing members of the population of wild red wolves. According to the Red Wolf Coalition: Earlier that week, the agency had announced its proposal to remove most members of the world’s only wild population of red wolves that now roam a five-county area in northeastern North Carolina and to put them into captivity—thus abandoning all protective efforts, except in one refuge where one pack lives and in a bombing range. Read the full story here.