There’s More Than One Way To Catch a Wolf!

The first attempt at finding a den this year offered the Red Wolf Recovery Program biologists a new challenge. Finding this particular den was going to be easy….it already had been spotted from the air during a telemetry flight. The challenge in this case was that we wanted to get our hands on the mother as well as the pups.

[Red wolf den. Photo credit: D. Rabon/USFWS]
Female wolf 1686F was wearing a radio-collar that was near the end of its battery life. We needed to change her collar to prevent losing radio contact with her. The conventional method for catching a wolf to change its collar is to set modified leg-hold traps. For a mother with young pups, however, that’s not an option because there is always some risk involved (albeit small given the design of the trap). Instead, we decided our best option would be to sneak up to her den without being detected and capture her in a net as she exited. As you can see from the photo every once in a while a plan comes together!

[Red wolf captured. Photo credit: A. Johnson/USFWS]
Once her collar was replaced, we processed her pups, placed the pups back in the den, followed by mom, and moved on to our next den search.

[Replacing a radio-telemetry collar. Photo credit: A. Johnson/USFWS]

Settling In

My name is Jessica, and I am the current red wolf caretaker intern for the Red Wolf Recovery Program. My time at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has been everything I have dreamed of and so much more.

I started on a Monday by moving into the caretaker's cabin at Sandy Ridge, the Red Wolf Recovery Program's captive-holding facility. It was better than anything that I had thought would be provided in the woods. I have lights and heat and I even on occasion have running water and electricity. After getting settled into my cabin I was given a tour of the wolf enclosures where I would be spending most of my days. And on my first night in the cabin, the wolves howled for me. It was a great first day!

Over the rest of that week I began feeding the wolves on my own. I was also having animals brought in that would be staying for a couple of days that I had to get settled in by myself. I wasn’t sure if life could get better at that point.

Later, once I was comfortable with my regular duties and daily tasks, I went with one of the Red Wolf Recovery Program biologist to check traps. Though we didn’t catch anything that day I learned a lot. I saw how to set traps and what to look for when choosing a location for traps. I learned what made one place better than another. -- Jessica

Pack Intact

Just prior to red wolf whelping/denning season last April (2010), biologists with the Red Wolf Recovery Program were alarmed at the sudden disappearance of female red wolf 1470F, the breeding female of the Northern Pack. 1470F was then just short of four years old, and had recently formed a new pair bond in her natal territory with male red wolf 1628M. Program biologists were hopeful she would have her first litter that year.

During whelping season, biologists conduct radio telemetry flights three times a week in an effort to pinpoint when and where each breeding female is denning. When a female restricts her movements to a particular place it is assumed that she is denning. Biologists then use ground radio telemetry to track to her and the den. Just as it appeared that 1470F was beginning to restrict her movements and establish a den, her radio telemetry signal was lost. Had something bad happened to her? Or was it simply a malfunctioning radio telemetry collar. We had hoped for the latter.

The only way to know for sure what had happened to 1047F was to set traps in an effort to capture her. Trapping would have to wait, though. If she was still around, and if she had a litter of pups, it would be too risky to capture her while she was raising a litter. Attempts to capture her would have to wait until the pups, if there were any, were large enough to be trapped and fitted with a radio telemetry collar.

Then, in June, a graduate student conducting research on red wolves was working in the Northern Pack’s territory when he happened to see three wolf puppies. As luck would have it, we were able to capture one of the puppies. A blood sample was taken, and genetics results confirmed the pup to be the offspring of 1470F and 1628M. This was great news! We now knew that 1470F had indeed given birth to her first litter. But we still weren’t sure of her presence. The pup, of course, was released right away to rejoin his pack.

In January (2011), we decided the pups would finally be big enough to be safely captured and fitted with a radio telemetry collar. Traps were set, and three pups were quickly captured, including the pup we had captured the previous June; they were in perfect health. Soon after, 1628M, the breeding male, was captured along with a fourth pup. But there was still no sign of mom. Finally, about a week later, our lucky day arrived. A strong, healthy 1470F was caught in our trap. The radio telemetry collar she was wearing had malfunctioned. We replaced it with a new one, and released the entire family back into their territory. -- Ryan

A New Season

Today marks the first full day of Autumn. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. For the field biologists with the Red Wolf Recovery Program that's a sign that the fall trapping season is right around the corner. It's also a sign that we need to do a little fall cleaning...


...and prepare for the long days of trapping by getting our trap gear in good working order.


Dirty Traps
We set hundreds of traps during the fall, and each trap has to be individually prepared for use. This means cleaning, boiling, and waxing the traps, replacing the rubber-padded jaws, and tuning them to catch red wolves.


Preparing traps is a laborious process, but everyone does their part to get the job done. And in the end a well prepared trap makes the field biologists' job of catching wolves a little easier.


Clean Traps

Management Techniques: Trapping and Traps

There are several reasons it is necessary for Red Wolf Recovery Program field biologists to capture wild red wolves, including to fit a wolf with a new telemetry collar or to replace an old or non-functioning telemetry collar, or to provide medical treatment to a sick or injured wolf. Trapping is one of the most efficient and effective means for the Red Wolf Recovery Program biologists to capture red wolves.



We use a steel leg-hold trap, which requires an animal to step in the center of the trap triggering it to close on the animal’s foot. The traps we use are referred to as a "soft-catch" trap because of the rubber-padded "jaws." Obviously, it would not benefit us to injure the very animal we are trying to conserve, so our traps are highly modified to reduce injury.


The rubber-padded jaws, shock absorbers, and swivels in the trap design lessen the impact of the trap on the animal’s foot. In addition, we set our traps with a drag instead of staking the traps to the ground, which also greatly reduces potential injury to the wolves. Other variables that we consider in the safety and appropriateness of using leg-hold traps when trapping include the age of the target animal, weather conditions, how far the animal can travel after being trapped, other non-target animals in the area, and the level and experience of the field biologist. Field biologists with the Red Wolf Recovery Program have, on average, 16 years of experience trapping red wolves. -- Art