RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal government has proposed shrinking the last remaining habitat of the only endangered red wolves left in the wild, and giving landowners more leeway to kill any of the animals that stray onto private property.
Conservation groups call it an extinction sentence that would doom the last wild wolves.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about 35 wild wolves remain, all in eastern North Carolina. Another 200 are in captive breeding programs.
The proposal would limit their habitat to federal land in two North Carolina counties and lift restrictions on killing any wolves that stray from that territory. It would take several months for the proposal to take effect.
