As part of the March 29, 2018 appropriations bills, Congress directed the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to obtain an independent assessment on the taxonomic status of the red wolf, Canis rufus, and the Mexican gray wolf, Canis lupus baileyi. Currently, the FWS considers the red wolf a valid taxonomic species and the Mexican gray wolf a valid taxonomic subspecies. Both the red wolf and the Mexican gray wolf are listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA; United States Public Law No. 93-205; United States Code Title 16 Section 1531 et seq.). However, there is ongoing debate about their taxonomic status.
Major barriers to the capability of FWS to re-establish healthy populations of wild wolves in the U.S. include habitat fragmentation and human-caused mortality (e.g., being struck by motor vehicles and shootings). Interbreeding with coyote populations is also a particular threat to the red wolf population. Debates about genetics of the red wolf and Mexican gray wolf reflect modern dilemmas of conservation biology. First, natural and human habitats are merging, opening the possibility for formerly separated species to interbreed, with this situation particularly true for the red wolf. In addition, new genetic techniques are enabling scientists to distinguish organism groups at finer degrees of resolution than ever before. Whether and how the new capabilities provided by modern genetics change what constitutes a “species” is also open to debate.
At the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will appoint an ad hoc committee to conduct an independent analysis of scientific literature to answer the following two questions: 1. Is the red wolf a taxonomically valid species? and 2. Is the Mexican gray wolf a taxonomically valid subspecies?
The committee will summarize the relevant science about the red wolf and Mexican gray wolf, including research on the animals’ evolutionary history and genetic diversity. The committee will deliver its findings and conclusions in a brief report divided into two sections, one for the red wolf and one for the Mexican gray wolf.
