Red wolf
The red wolf (Canis rufus) is a subspecies of wolf. It is an endangered species of wolf from Eastern North America.
Red wolf Temporal range: 10,000 Years-Present
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Canis lupus rufus |
Red wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980 after the few remaining wild wolves were placed in a captive breeding program. Reintroduced to the wild in 1987 in northeastern North Carolina, red wolves began to recover, but the population is rapidly diminishing as of late 2016.
The red wolf is smaller than a gray wolf and larger than a coyote. It is slender and long-legged, and it lives in the wild only on the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina. It hunts small mammals, rodents, and white-tailed deer.
There is a lot of controversy about its taxonomy, which is not settled yet.
Red Wolf Media
- Canis rufus 1 - Syracuse Zoo.jpg
Red wolf (Canis rufus) at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Syracuse, New York.
- Mapa distribución lobo rojo (canis rufus).png
Historical range of the red wolf
Melanistic red wolf at Audubon Park, New Orleans (1931).
USFWS worker with red wolf pups, August 2002
- Canis rufus & Canis latrans.jpg
Comparative image of a red wolf and a western coyote (C. latrans incolatus)
- John Woodhouse Audubon - Red Texas Wolf (Canis Lupus) - Google Art Project.jpg
Audubon's depiction of the red wolf (1851)