The McClatchy News Service has the story:
WASHINGTON — When the few remaining red wolves try to breed, they prefer a little privacy.
That’s become a bit of a problem, and that’s why Congress stepped in with $870,000 to build a better home for the once nearly extinct species.
The earmark in the $410 billion bill spending package that President Barack Obama signed this week is going to be used to help construct a new breeding center for the animals near Tacoma, Wash. The existing one is being encroached on by development, and the animals are more productive breeders in remote settings that mimic the wild.
Some of the money also is intended for expansion of the red wolf program in Asheville, N.C., which since 1985 has participated in the captive breeding effort with at least a pair and sometimes a family of wolves.
It hasn’t been determined yet how the money will be divided between the facility in Washington state and the one in North Carolina, according to the earmark’s sponsor, Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C.
It’s all part of a decades-long effort to save the red wolf, a large, dog-like animal with tinges of red on its shoulders, legs and ears. The species, which was wiped out primarily by humans, who viewed the animals as predators, had been reduced to only 17 known survivors by the 1970s.