Tommy's Outdoors

Conservation and Science

Is The Red Wolf a Real Species?

Without exaggeration, red wolves are my favourite canid species. I don't exactly remember where and when I heard about them for the first time but I really got interested after reading an excellent book by Dan Flores, "Coyote America". The history of this species and the inept and ultimately futile conservation and recovery programs are something that anyone interested in conservation should be familiar with. Well, maybe I'm being slightly unfair as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service still runs the Red Wolf Recovery Program. It is however surrounded by controversy, criticism and conspiracy theories!

So, I was intrigued when during one of many webinars on wildlife and ecology that I attend, one of the speakers started with a slide showing a photograph of a red wolf and opened his presentation with the question, "what species is it?" To my surprise, nobody gave a correct answer. That speaker was Peter Brewitt from the University of California, Santa Cruz (currently the University of Cumbria). So I did what I do, and a few days and a few emails later, we were sitting in front of our computers, talking red wolves!

Click on the photo to view the blog post

During our conversation, we dive into the history of the species as we know it, and their current conservation status and distribution. We discuss the genetic diversity of canids on the American continent, and why attempts to recover red wolves might be an endeavour that goes against nature and as such could be pointless, as it would amount to working against the natural processes.

In the second half of the show, we switch gears and talk about Peter's fascinating research into different storylines related to the red wolf species identity presented in online discussions. This is an especially interesting piece of research for conservation-minded folks who spend long hours discussing species' conservation on social media. The paper that Peter co-authored is titled "Red Wolf Science and Identity Storylines in an Online Discursive Community" and you can request it from the author, here.

157: Is The Red Wolf a Real Species? Conversation with Peter Brewitt

Shore Angling for Rays Decades Ago and Now

Recently, several people suggested that in the past decades, it was a rare occurrence for anglers to catch a ray off the beach. The implication was that there was an increased abundance of rays nowadays, which I found confusing, knowing the deteriorating state of biodiversity in our seas.

So I contacted Declan Quigley, an independent researcher and a previous guest on episode 151, who has an unparalleled knowledge of historical records related to fish, fisheries and angling. I asked him the question: "Is it true that several decades ago, let's say in the 50s or maybe 70s, it was a very rare occurrence for anglers to catch a ray off the beach?"

His answer was so detailed and so factual that I couldn't just let it stay in my inbox. So here it is in the form of a blog post.