Investigative Report of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Wolf Recovery Program

We investigated complaints from private landowners criticizing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Red Wolf Recovery Program. The landowners alleged that the Program released more wolves into the wild than originally planned, and that it released wolves on private property when it originally stated it would only release them on Federal land. The landowners also questioned whether the Program misreported mortality data of the wolves to bolster support for the Program, and whether Program staff falsely reported the September 2014 death of a specific red wolf as heartworm instead of gunshot to protect an FWS employee who the landowners believed had shot the wolf. 

 

Our investigation determined that the Program released more wolves than it originally proposed and acted contrary to its rules by releasing wolves onto private land. We found that FWS accurately reported historical mortality data of the wolves, that FWS accurately recorded the cause of death as suspected gunshot for the wolf that died in September 2014, and that no FWS employee had been deemed culpable for the wolf’s death.