If I had my way, red wolves would roam in Arkansas, but it won't happen.
Successful gray wolf reintroductions in the West give us false hope that red wolves could be successfully introduced in the East. Unfortunately, other than the word "wolf," the species have little in common.
For starters, the gray wolf is a distinct, genetically pure wolf species. According to a study published in 2016, the red wolf is not. The remnant population, which numbers only about 250, contains coyote DNA. There is considerable debate in the scientific community about whether the red wolf is actually a wolf/coyote hybrid.
Only 8-12 red wolves exist in the wild, all on North Carolina's Albemarle Peninsula at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. They share the area with coyotes, and there is documented crossbreeding. The remaining red wolves are captive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016 prioritized red wolf conservation with a species survival plan that emphasizes captive reproduction. Its goal is to keep the species alive with the hope of produce enough red wolves for wild reintroduction.
The Ozark or Ouachita national forests encompass about 3 million acres. Red wolf reintroduction advocates tout them as excellent places to reintroduce red wolves.
Coyotes are abundant in our national forests. That habitat is already saturated with a highly successful, highly adaptive canine predator. With so few red wolves available for release, the small number that could be released in the Hurricane Creek or Caney Creek wilderness areas would be grossly outnumbered and overwhelmed. Interbreeding would eventually dilute the species into oblivion.
Another major problem is that red wolves resemble coyotes from a distance. We hunt coyotes aggressively in Arkansas, but hunting does not affect coyote numbers at all. Joseph Hinton, a wildlife biologist that studies red wolves, said that anytime hunting and trapping creates holes in local coyote populations, coyotes are plentiful enough to fill the holes. Red wolves are so few that there are not enough to replace any losses from shooting or vehicle strikes.
Red wolf reintroduction advocates insist that red wolves would help control the feral hog population. Red wolves and feral hogs did not co-evolve in North America. Except for javalina, swine are not native to North America and did not appear on the continent until about the 1500s. They have been pervasive in the wild for less than 100 years, by which time the red wolf was virtually extinct in the wild. European swine are not natural prey for red wolves, nor would they ever be.
An adult male red wolf weighs less than 100 pounds. Adult feral hogs are huge and aggressive, especially sows with piglets. They often travel in large groups. It is possible that a pack of red wolves might occasionally take down a piglet or a small adult pig, but pigs would not be a red wolf's preferred prey. Deer are much more plentiful and easier to kill.
Coyotes are not substantially smaller than red wolves. As numerous as coyotes are, they do not mess with feral pigs. Black bears don't even tangle with pigs. The risk/reward ratio is skewed too far to the negative, a fact of which wild predators are instinctively aware.
Where will we get an adequate number of red wolves to have a remote chance at successful reintroduction? Again, only about 250 red wolves exist, and most are in captivity as breeding stock. Translocating a few of these animals would substantially reduce the percentage of the captive population, making it increasingly difficult to sustain reintroduction efforts.
Even if there were enough red wolves to establish a viable wild pack in Arkansas, it would still be an island population. There are not enough red wolves to establish packs throughout the rest of their range, which would be necessary to allow for genetic interchange. At current numbers, the captive population cannot produce enough cubs to keep support a wide-scale reintroduction program.
As one that likes seeing things in nature set right, I would love for red wolves to roam wild in Arkansas. I hope it will be possible someday. In the near future, it's a fantasy.