Florida’s Forgotten Wolves
A Florida cautionary tale
The topic of Florida’s native wildlife may bring to mind a wide array of species, ranging from animals such alligators and flamingos to manatees. Other indigenous species often get far less attention than these more iconic animals, such as Florida’s cougars and black bears, but will still register with many people. Meanwhile others will be forever confined to history books and known to comparatively few, in particular those rendered extinct by human activity. That has unfortunately been the case for the subjects of today’s discussion; the Florida red and black wolves.
These two species of wolf likely inhabited Florida for thousands of years up until the early 20th century, when both were declared extinct by the 1930s after succumbing to decades of over-hunting and protective farmers. Such a fate befell other species around this time as well, such as the Carolina parakeet; Florida’s only native parrot species.
The Florida red wolf was a subspecies of the red wolf (pictured above), which once had a range spanning most of the American southeast. Though endangered, small wild populations can still be encountered in parts of Texas and Pennsylvania. At around two feet at the shoulder, they would have been significantly larger than the average coyote, but a bit smaller than the “proper” wolves of the northern hemisphere. The identity of the Florida black wolf is unfortunately less certain, with various sources claiming it to have been a variant of red wolf, gray wolf, and even coyote.
Conservation was not a concern when these animals went extinct, as they were often merely a pest in the eyes of those who encountered them most frequently. Even verifiable photographs are virtually non-existent, adding to their intrigue and frustrating taxonomists. While too late in the case of Florida’s wolves and several other species, today modern state and private efforts have managed to preserve many at-risk species within the state, albeit often barely.
Sources:
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Red-Wolf
https://wolf-stuff.com/blogs/wolf-facts/florida-black-wolf
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/mammals/land/red-wolf/
https://www.livescience.com/27909-wolves.html