Eastern North Carolina holds the only wild red wolves left on Earth. The population centers on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding Albemarle Peninsula, spanning Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell, and Washington counties, where the refuge’s pocosin wetlands, marsh edges, and adjoining farm fields host the site of the world’s first reintroduction of a species declared extinct in the wild. Red wolves were released back onto this landscape in 1987, seven years after the last wild individuals had vanished.
Nearly all of North Carolina’s records trace to this one peninsula, where wolves move between refuge wetlands and nearby agricultural fields hunting white-tailed deer, raccoons, nutria, and rabbits. They live in family packs built around a breeding pair, a structure that lets a small, closely studied population hold its ground even as members disperse to find new territory.
Records run steady through the year rather than showing a strong seasonal swing, which fits a resident population under close, continuous monitoring rather than a species passing through. Given how few red wolves remain anywhere, every mapped record here represents a genuinely rare and closely tracked animal, not a broad regional presence.
