Albemarle- Pamlico Environmental Education  Activity Kit

Objectives:

• To learn about wolves and where they live in North Carolina.
• To learn what  predators and prey are  and how they benefit each other.
• To discover how myths can eliminate a population of animals.
• To learn about an endangered species.

Materials:

• Pencil.

Introduction:

When Sir Walter Raleigh s expedition first landed ashore on Roanoke Island near Manteo, North Carolina in 1584, the white man's battle against wolves in the New World began. Over 400 years of negative thinking and persecution against red wolves in the South and gray wolves in the North has nearly eliminated these impressive animals from the landscape! Today, through a unique twist of fate, red wolves are being restored to their native range in the very same place where man began to conquer this
part of the new world.

The red wolf is one of three wild canids native to the United States. It inhabited the southeast part of the country before it was eliminated from most of its range, while the gray or timber wolf lived in much of the northern U.S. before its population decline. The coyote, which is abundant and has been moving east in recent years, originally occupied the western two-thirds of the U.S. When compared with the other two species, the red wolf is typically larger than the coyote but smaller than the gray wolf. It is usually cinnamon to gray in color and may weigh 40 to 80 pounds.

Along with the Florida panther and black-footed ferret, the red wolf is one of the most endangered species of animal in North America! Due to this designation, it is protected by The Endangered Species Act of the Federal Government which makes harming these animals or jeopardizing their habitat a serious offense.

Like all canids, the red wolf is a predator or animal that kills and eats other animals for food. It usually feeds on a wide variety of animals and birds that reproducerapidly. Marsh rabbits, muskrat, and nutria are some of its favorite foods. Whatever they eat, however, wolves maintain a balance in the environment by controlling the populations of prey animals. If prey animals were allowed to increase without control, they would eat the vegetation in the environment until there was very little remaining. Eventually, the small prey animals would starve or possibly die from an outbreak of disease. For many years, man did not realize the value of having large predators in the environment. Wolves were regarded as vermin and were shot on sight. Even in our childhood, stories such as "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Beauty AndTheBeast" depict wolves as villains that chase and threaten the central characters of the story. These wolves are "big and bad" like the myths of old. Today, the value of these animals is understood and appreciated by many more people. Some of the negative folk lore and fear of wolves is diminishing, making red wolf restoration in eastern North Carolina possible.
 
 

Activity:
Match the lore with the appropriate facts about red wolves.

Key: a-j, b-i, c-rn, d-l, e-h, f-n, g-k.

Illustrations by Sandra Koch

For additional information regarding this Web page, contact Doug Newcomb, in Raleigh, NC, at doug_newcomb@fws.gov

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