Alligator River

North Carolina’s Red Wolves How you can help red wolves Dot to Dot DRIVE SAFELY. Connect the dots and color the habitat for this animal. 13 USFWS Red wolves need a lot of habitat to live. They have to cross roads and canals to find enough food to survive. Pay attention while driving. 11 14 KEEP THE ROAD CLEAN. Food and trash thrown from vehicles attracts wild animals to roadsides. These animals can be injured or killed by vehicles. Save red wolves and other wildlife – don’t litter! Red wolves are ENDANGERED animals. A long time ago, red wolves were almost hunted to EXTINCTION. The last 17 WILD red wolves were taken to zoos to live safely. In CAPTIVITY, they had many pups. When there were enough RED WOLVES living in captivity, scientists returned four pairs of red wolves to the wild in North Carolina. Today, the POCOSIN habitat and farm fields of northeastern North Carolina are home to the only wild population of red wolves anywhere in the world! There are about 25 red wolves living in North Carolina and about 275 red wolves living in captivity across the country. Red wolves are mostly CARNIVORES (meat-eaters). They eat white-tailed deer, raccoons, rabbits and rodents such as mice and NUTRIA. Red wolves are PREDATORS and play an important role in nature. Red wolves are shy and stay away from people. No one has ever been attacked by a red wolf. 19 16 15 67 8 5 20 LEARN. Learn about wildlife and enjoy sharing the world with wild animals. Understand that red wolves are not dangerous to people when left alone. All wildlife, including red wolves, should not be approached in order to avoid injury to the animal or the people involved. 4 32 31 23 24 29 25 26 27 33 34 35 30 36 3 2 1 28 Greg Koch wolves. Wildlife managers keep track of wolves in North Carolina. It is important that they know when a wolf is found dead. If you find a wolf that has died, report it to a wildlife professional and do not touch it. 22 Top left: adult red wolf Left: wolf den in a farm field Above: red wolf father and pup Right: two to three-week-old wolf pups in a den created from an uprooted stump Word Find Find the orange capitalized words from this page. USFWS USFWS Red wolves live in family groups known as PACKS. Each year, the mother and father wolves dig a DEN and have about four PUPS. When those pups grow up, they usually stay with their family and help raise the next year’s pups. Red wolves live in packs so they can help each other hunt and raise their young together. 17 18 10 21 REPORT DEAD red 12 E N D A N G E R E D X C A P T I V I T Y A P U P S P D E N K W I L D K B Q A R A G R G E P A C K S Q P P O C O S I N O V P A C K S F F A U L S A D E N F L R E D W O L V E S A E X T I N C T I O N A V F U D E C A R N I V O R E S L D P R E D A T O R S T S G R K D R I V E S A F E L Y H P U S D A Y E M B T K E E P T H E R O A D C L E A N M H T A E N W P R L E A R N C R E P O R T D E A D K N U T R I A C Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Red Wolf Recovery Program P.O. Box 329 Columbia, NC 27925 Phone: 252/796 3004 Fax: 252/796 3010 http://pocosinlakes.fws.gov Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge P.O. Box 1969 Manteo, NC 27954 Phone: 252/473 1131 Fax: 252/473 1668 http://alligatorriver.fws.gov 9