The Red Wolf is Not a Hybrid

The red wolf (Canis rufus), an endangered species that was extirpated in its original range in southeastern North America by 1970, was recently reintroduced successfully in North Carolina (Henry 1992; Parker & Phillips 1991; Phillips & Parker 1988). Simultaneously, a longstanding interest in its systematic status intensified as Wayne and Jenks ( 1991), on the basis of an analysis of mitochondrial DNA, proposed that at some time in the past the red wolf had originated as a hybrid between the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and the coyote (Canis latrans). They also held that the mtDNA component of the current red wolf population is predominantly coyote. Their conclusions, while questioned even from the standpoint of genetics (Dowling et al. 1992), have received widespread attention (Begley et al. 1991; DeBlieu 1992; O'Brien & Mayr 1991). That C rufus and C latrans had indeed hybridized was suspected long ago (Goldman 1944) and was generally considered one of the major factors in the near disappearance of the red wolf (McCarley 1962; Nowak 1979). However, it also was thought that this process was the result of modern human environmental disruption and that hybridization did not engulf the entire red wolf population prior to conservation efforts. The critical new suggestions made by Wayne and Jenks ( 1991) are: ( 1 ) that the red wolf actually originated as a hybrid and had never been a valid species or subspecies; and (2) that the existing captive and reintroduced red wolf population is substantially coyote in ancestry. The study by Wayne and Jenks follows closely on reports of another "hybrid zone" in the Great Lakes region, said to involve the spread of coyote mtDNA to 62 percent of gray wolves in Minnesota and to 100 percent of those on Isle Royale (Lehman et al. 1991). Observations by field personnel in those areas, however, indicate no change in the morphological, behavioral, or ecological characters of the wolves (L. D. Mech & R. 0. Peterson, personal communication). Therefore, even if the mtDNA situation has been reported accurately for both the gray wolf and the current red wolf population, the latter still could retain all other characters of the original species, and thus not represent a hybrid zone in the usual sense. Indeed, Wayne and Jenks support continued protection of the red wolf. Unfortunately, a likely typical reaction is that of Gittleman and Pimm (1991), who combined Wayne and Jenks' study with a background of their own to criticize efforts being made to reestablish the red wolf. They implied that this animal's "unusually modern discovery" in 1851 somehow supports a view that it is not distinctive. Actually, 1851 only marks the first publication of a valid scientific name for the animal. Its presence had been recognized long before, published under another name in 1791, based on observations in 1774 (Harper 1942). The coyote, the distinctiveness of which is unquestioned, was not named until 1823, based on observations in 1819 (Young & Jackson 1951). Contrary to what is stated by Gittleman and Pimm (1972), the red wolf was not "resurrected as a species in 1972, by Paradiso and Nowak." Most authors have accepted specific status since the studies of Goldman (1937, 1944). Such workers included Ferrell et al. (1980), who were incorrectly cited by Gittleman and Pimm as not having found the red wolf to be distinctive. There was a minority view that the red wolf is a subspecies of the gray (Lawrence & Bossert 1967, 1975), but until 1991 there was only one published suggestion of hybrid origin (Mech 1970) and it was unsupported by study. Gittleman and Pimm suggested that if the red wolf is not a full species it may not be worth saving. However, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 also covers subspecies and certain vertebrate populations. Of the 49 native United States terrestrial mammals now on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, 38 are subspecies or populations; they include such entities as the Key deer, the Mount Graham red squirrel, and the conterminous U.S. populations of the gray wolf and grizzly bear. The Endangered Species Act does not address hy-