Texas is where red wolves once ranged across Gulf Coastal prairie and East Texas woodland, but NatureServe now lists the species SX, Presumed Extirpated, in the state; the last verified wild population was rounded up for a captive-breeding program in the 1970s. The 455 Texas records all come from GBIF-linked specimen and survey data, not live iNaturalist sightings, which fits a species with no confirmed living wild population left in the state.
The listed places, Big Bend National Park, Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, and Big Thicket National Preserve, are a generic starting point rather than genuine red wolf habitat; only Big Thicket sits within the species’ true historic Gulf Coast and East Texas range, and none currently hold a known population. The more interesting Texas story is along the upper Gulf Coast near Galveston Island, where researchers have found red wolf ancestry persisting in local coyotes, a genetic echo of the species decades after its official extirpation. Records here skew toward winter, peaking in January, consistent with older historical and museum-specimen data rather than any current activity.
