Red Wolf

The Red Wolf also known as Canis rufus is a mammal of the order Carnivora. The Red Wolf has a reddish coat, silver-grey forehead and darker signs on white legs and a cream underbelly. The Red Wolf has smooth coat and long ears and long legs. It lives through the south eastern parts of the United States of America, from Florida to Texas. The Red Wolf typically has a height at the shoulders of fifteen to sixteen inches and it weighs eighteen to thirty six kilo grams. It is thought that its original distribution included much of eastern North America, where Red Wolves were found from New York in the east, Florida in the south, and Texas in the south-west. Records of bounty payments to Wappinger Indians in New York in the middle 1700s confirm its range at least that far north, it is possible that it could have extended as far as extreme eastern Canada. Traditionally, three subspecies of Red Wolf are recognized. Two of these subspecies are extinct. Canis rufus floridanus has been extinct since 1930 and Canis rufus gregoryi was declared extinct in the wild by 1970. Canis rufus rufus, the other surviving subspecies, was extirpated in 1980, although that status was changed to critically endangered when one hundred wolves were reintroduced in North Carolina.



Although it has been suggested that the red wolf (Canis rufus) originated as a fertile cross between gray wolves and coyotes, the red wolf may have existed in North America before both the gray wolf and the coyote. Fossils up to 750,000 years old indicate that the red wolf may be a close relative to a primitive ancestor of the North American canids.

The red wolf is similar to but smaller than the gray wolf and is intermediate in many characteristics between gray wolves and coyotes. It often interbreeds with the coyote, and because of this, it is believed that the red wolf may eventually become extinct by hybridization, rather than by man. Its colors range from cinnamon red to almost black, with tan markings above the eyes. It feeds mainly on birds, rabbits, and other small rodents, but will also hunt deer and other large prey if available. The red wolf's historic range covered the southeastern portion of the United States, reaching as far west as Texas and north to Illinois. Their preferred habitat was warm, moist, and densely vegetated, although they were also present in pine forests, bottom land hardwood forests, coastal prairies, and marshes.Red Wolf in Brush

Destruction of forests and coastal marsh habitat, as well as widespread persecution and predator control activities, brought them close to extinction. All of this in addition to hybridization. In 1980, they were declared biologically extinct in the wild. In the wild, red wolves normally establish life-long mates, and their packs usually consist of an adult pair and the young. They reach breeding maturity in their second or third year. Breeding seasons can vary from March to May. Den sites include stream banks, enlarged burrows of other animals, hollow trees, and sandy knolls in coastal areas.



There are thought to be about three hundred red wolves remaining in the world, with two hundred and twenty of those in captivity. For decades, the Red Wolf has been indistinguishable genetically from either the Gray Wolf or the Coyote. The Red Wolf breeds with both species and may again be in peril as contact with other species in the wild resumes. In 1987 approximately one hundred were reintroduced into the wild as the first island propagation project in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge off the coast of North Carolina. In 1989 the second island propagation project initiated with release of a population on Horn Island of the Mississippi coast. This population was moved in 1998 because of a likelihood of encounters with humans. The third island propagation project introduced a population on St. Vincent Island, Florida offshore between Cape San Blas and Apalachicola, Florida in 1990 and in 1997 the fourth island propagation program introduced a population to Cape St. George Island, Florida south of Apalachicola, Florida. In 1991 two pairs were reintroduced into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the last known wolf was killed in 1905. Despite some early success, the wolves were relocated to North Carolina in 1998, ending the effort to reintroduce the species to the Park. Historical habitats included forests, swamps and coastal prairies, where it was an apex predator.

Red Wolves are shy and wary creatures. They prefer to hunt alone or in small family groups, pack sizes are smaller than those of their gray cousins, consisting often of one adult pair and their offspring. As in other canids pair-bonding is strong and Red Wolves mate for life. They mate yearly and two or three pups are usually born in the spring. Both parents help raise the offspring who are mature enough to leave behind parental support at six months of age. Their diet consists of small animals, including rabbits, raccoons and rodents. They occasionally bring down deer with the help of other wolves and they supplement their diet with insects and berries. Red wolves also are known to breed with coyotes, and their special features are being lost. The red wolf's behavior is one reason why it is in critical conservation state. Unlike the grey wolf, which has historically been known to kill people on rare occasions, the red wolf has not been recorded to attack people, though they were reported to scavenge upon corpses on the battlefields of the Mexican-American War.