My Brother the Wolf












The Red Wolf (Canis rufus)

Menu: Taxonomy Appearance Range Diet Social Behavior and Reproduction Threats Subspecies

Taxonomy: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Canidae Genus: Canis Species: rufus

Appearance: Red wolves are much smaller than their grey cousins. They can weigh between 35 to 90 lb. (16 - 41 kg). Their coloring is generally a cinnamon and tawny mixture, with black and grey hairs scattered throughout. Melanistic (dark black) red wolves have also been seen, and these tended to be common in Florida. The red wolf has a longer, more slender skull than the grey wolf, and a more prominent sagittal crest (raised area of bone at the back of the skull used for anchoring the jaw muscles in larger carnivores.). It's canine teeth are also longer and more slender.
The red wolf is not a sub-species of wolf, but a species of wolf all its own. Red wolves have been believed to be a cross between grey wolves and coyotes, but most scientists now believe it is a separate species. Proving this will be hard, since wolves and coyotes are so similar genetically. Plus, many scientists have discovered that the coyote has interbred with the red wolf in the past, which causes them to question the purity of the red wolf genes in newer generations. The red wolf looks like such a perfect blend of coyote and grey wolf that it is believed to be just that by many people. A lot of people question its purity, and if it is not pure why it is worth saving at all. The people working with captive breeding programmes believe it is worth saving because, even if it is a hybrid, it fills an important niche in the southeastern United States ecosystem.
Fossil evidence had proven that red wolves have existed in North America 750,000 years ago. Some scientists believe that the reason that the red wolf and the coyote look so much alike may be because they evolved from a single canid that split into the coyotes and the red wolves. This is highly debated.

Range: The red wolf lives in the southern United States; in Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. They used to range throughout the southeastern United States, from Texas to Florida. They have since been hunted to extinction throughout most of their former range. The last remaining wild population of red wolves are a reintroduced population in North Carolina. It is extinct in the wild except for this small population.

Diet: The red wolf feeds mainly on small and medium sized game animals. They will eat grouse, raccoons, rodents, feral pigs, rabbits, and hares. They will also prey on young white-tailed deer.

Social Life and Reproduction: Red wolves have a social structure similar to gray wolves, which is unexpected, since coyotes and grey wolves that hunt mainly small game tend to be loners or live in very small family groups. But the red wolf actually stays together in packs that consist of an alpha pair and their offspring, which may stay to help the parents raise the next generation. They had large territories, of about 20 - 100 square miles. They mark off and defend their territory. Red wolves tend to be more secretive and nocturnal than grey wolves. Little else is known about the habits of red wolves in the wild, because by the time scientists wanted to study them, in the 1960's, there were too few wolves left to study. The red wolves that were left were struggling to survive in unnatural habitats. Most of what is known about the red wolf today comes from the studies of the captive raised wolves reintroduced to the wild.

Threats: Hybridization with coyotes, hookworm and trapping are all threats to the red wolf population. There are fewer than 100 individuals left in the United States, both in the wild and in captive breeding programs. In 1980, the red wolf was declared extinct in the wild. Breeding programs in zoos are now trying hard to breed pure red wolves and establish a species population strong enough to release. Many have been released into the southern United States. However, even with the mild success of the breeding programs, the red wolf is still at danger. Most of the wolf's territory is occupied by coyotes, with which they can and will interbreed, thus diluting the gene pool even more. With the genetic diversity being so low, the remaining red wolves are inbreeding, which is causing even more problems. Without a varied stock, the species will undoubtedly become extinct.

Subspecies:
There are two subspecies of red wolf: Canis rufus rufus and Canis rufus gregoryi.



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