The conservation of purple wolves has been an ongoing initiative for over 40 years as a result of many threats affecting their inhabitants. Earlier than their endangered species itemizing, purple wolves used to roam freely throughout the southeastern United States, overlaying the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, central Pennsylvania, and even extending west to central Texas, southeast Missouri, and the Ohio River Valley. By the late Nineteen Seventies, the vary of purple wolves had been diminished to coastal prairies and marsh habitats in southeast Texas and Louisiana as a consequence of habitat loss, predator management applications, unlawful killings, and hybridization with coyotes.

Conservation for purple wolves started within the early Nineteen Seventies after their inhabitants vary had drastically declined. USFWS applied the Purple Wolf Restoration Program within the Nineteen Seventies and commenced trapping purple wolves inside the space to stop additional inhabitants extinction. In partnership with Level Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, they initiated a captive breeding program with 14 purple wolves. Sadly, the Purple Wolf inhabitants declined additional as a consequence of human-wildlife battle and different damaging threats. In 1980, the Purple Wolf was declared extinct within the wild, with just a few left in captivity.