Genetic Testing for Possible Red Wolf Hybrids
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My name is Aspen Stevanovski, and I am a recent Wake Forest graduate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For the past year, I have tracked and studied a pair of Eastern coyotes whom I named Togo (female) and Prosperity (male). Currently, they are raising three puppies in a suburban environment and together make up the Yanhi Pack. Yanhi is the Catawba word for "water", and I selected that name to honor a tribe upon whose land this pack lives and because I first started tracking the adults along rivers and waterways. Pictured below is Yoda, the female of the puppies, at a couple months old and exploring the area outside her den.
Part of the fascination with this pack is that due to the adults' appearance (long legs, large size, coloration), behavior (preferring more medium-sized prey than a typical coyote), and other observations, I believe these animals might have have some red wolf ancestry. Red wolves, a unique wolf species, are native to the Southeast. They are critically endangered, with fewer than 25 surviving in the wild on Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge about 5 hours from the Yanhi Pack. If the Yanhi Pack is determined to have significant red wolf ancestry, this may have a great impact on red wolf conservation.
I have reached out to Dr. Jen Adams at the University of Idaho. She has run many scat samples to run genetics on possible red wolf hybrids. She has agreed; unfortunately, the cost is high considering I rely nearly 100% on donations for the work I do. I run Pounce Conservation, a 1 woman show based on my field research, a wolf statistical project that studies livestock predations, and carnivore-human coexistence. Here is the Instagram for Pounce.
I've held back on asking for regular donations to Pounce because of covid-19 and my firm belief that people should be donating to Black Lives Matter movements and black-owned businesses. However, I do not know how much longer the Yanhi Pack will frequent this one particular area, which is where I have been finding a lot of scat. Samples require fresh scat, so time is of the essence.
Thank you so much for considering a donation. In the age of habitat loss and urbanization, carnivore conservation and coexistence is essential.
My name is Aspen Stevanovski, and I am a recent Wake Forest graduate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For the past year, I have tracked and studied a pair of Eastern coyotes whom I named Togo (female) and Prosperity (male). Currently, they are raising three puppies in a suburban environment and together make up the Yanhi Pack. Yanhi is the Catawba word for "water", and I selected that name to honor a tribe upon whose land this pack lives and because I first started tracking the adults along rivers and waterways. Pictured below is Yoda, the female of the puppies, at a couple months old and exploring the area outside her den.
Part of the fascination with this pack is that due to the adults' appearance (long legs, large size, coloration), behavior (preferring more medium-sized prey than a typical coyote), and other observations, I believe these animals might have have some red wolf ancestry. Red wolves, a unique wolf species, are native to the Southeast. They are critically endangered, with fewer than 25 surviving in the wild on Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge about 5 hours from the Yanhi Pack. If the Yanhi Pack is determined to have significant red wolf ancestry, this may have a great impact on red wolf conservation.
I have reached out to Dr. Jen Adams at the University of Idaho. She has run many scat samples to run genetics on possible red wolf hybrids. She has agreed; unfortunately, the cost is high considering I rely nearly 100% on donations for the work I do. I run Pounce Conservation, a 1 woman show based on my field research, a wolf statistical project that studies livestock predations, and carnivore-human coexistence. Here is the Instagram for Pounce.
I've held back on asking for regular donations to Pounce because of covid-19 and my firm belief that people should be donating to Black Lives Matter movements and black-owned businesses. However, I do not know how much longer the Yanhi Pack will frequent this one particular area, which is where I have been finding a lot of scat. Samples require fresh scat, so time is of the essence.
Thank you so much for considering a donation. In the age of habitat loss and urbanization, carnivore conservation and coexistence is essential.
Organizer
Aspen Stevens
Organizer
Winston-Salem, NC