Young female wolf killed by car
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A young, female red wolf that scientists had hoped
would pair with an older male on Bulls Island was struck and killed by a
car on U.S. Highway 17 in rural Awendaw on Tuesday.
The female, a 2-year-old named Echo, had been rejected by her intended
mate, an 8-year-old male who has lived in the wild the past three years.
The two shared an enclosure for a brief time, but when staff at Cape
Romain National Wildlife Refuge released the two last week, the wolves
moved in separate directions.
The pair were introduced last fall. They were first set free together in
early February. While Echo ran to the south side of Bulls Island, the male
stayed near where his first mate lived.
“He had not given up on his original mate,” Cape Romain Manager George
Garris said at the time. Red wolves generally mate for life in the wild.
Biologists had considered the male’s first mate too old to bear more pups.
A federal program reintroducing the endangered red wolves to the wild used
a computer to match the new pair.
The second and most recent attempt at putting the two in an enclosure –
this time Garris moved the original female to a secluded site on the
mainland away from the male’s sight and smell – also didn’t work.
Naturalists aren’t sure what Echo had to do to reach the mainland, about
four miles away. She most likely swam creeks and walked over shallows and
oyster reefs, said Deputy Refuge Manager Matt Connolly.
Richie McWethy, an engineer with Charleston County Emergency Services
stationed in Awendaw, found the dead wolf Tuesday morning. He thought at
first it might be a German shepherd, but recognized the rare wolf and its
transmitter collar.
McWethy called Connolly, who came out to identify Echo. The wolf had an
abrasion to her head and a broken leg.
“That’s a weird thing how it got off the island and got all the way over
here,” McWethy said.
The young female was born and raised at the Wild Canid Center in Missouri.
Biologists say Echo might have left the island because an older, dominant
female still lived there.
Garris had hoped Echo and the older male would eventually work things out.
“We put them back together. They didn’t accept each other,” Garris said
Wednesday.
The red wolf program may choose another computer match for the male.