The Red Wolf

Some red wolf's pelt(coat) ranges from cinnamon red, gray, and black. Its smaller than a grey wolf and bigger than a coyote. Its weight is about 40-80 pounds. Red wolves travel in smaller packs then gray wolves. Most times the red wolf pack consists of an adult pair and their young offspring. Adults mate between February and March of every year. Two to three pups are born during April or May. Both males and females help raise their young. When the young are about 6 months old they are mature enough to leave home. Early this century the red wolf lived as far north as Pennsylvania and as west as central Texas. The last remaining red wolves live in coastal rairie and marsh areas. At present, the red wolf is extinct from the wild. Red wolves need between 10 and 100 square miles of habitat to hunt and live. Red wolves prefer to eat white-tailed deer and raccoon, but will eat any available small animal. Pure red wolves are thought to be extinct in the wild. Three problems threaten the future of red wolves - the loss of habitat, the hunting of wolves, and red wolves mating with coyotes. The expansion of agriculture, logging and human settlement cleared the forest home of red wolves. Between 1900 - 1920 red wolves were hunted because they preyed on cattle. As the population of red wolves declined, coyotes expanded into its territory. Today the red wolf population is at 300 captive animals in zoos and captive breeding facilities. Red wolves have been reintroduced at the lligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.