2012 is the Year of the Red Wolf at the WNC Nature Center! Red Wolves are critically endangered, with only 300 in the world – and only a little over 100 of those left in the wild. The Nature Center is honored to be part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for these native canids, and if you’ve visited us, you’ve probably seen our patriarch wolf, Rufus.

Rufus and Angel were chosen by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to live in Asheville as a breeding pair. They had two litters – one in 2004 with five puppies, and one in 2009 of one puppy. Mayo was the 2009 puppy, and she lives here still as our next generation breeding female. Just this January, Mayo was introduced to her possible future mate, Phoenix. Red wolves selected as breeding pairs are chosen to increase genetic diversity in the population, and to adhere as closely as possible to the pure red wolf strain. In the past, due to dramatically decreased populations, there was some natural hybridization between red wolves and coyotes. It is these hybrid genes conservationalists are working to breed out of the species. The foundation stock for today's red wolf population came from just fourteen pure red wolf individuals.