Red Wolf
by Gianna
Did you know that the red wolf was nearly extinct about 50 years ago? These endangered wolves live with their life-long mate in there self-made den.
This sleek creature is cinnamon red on its back, ears, and sometimes on its legs and tail. The rest of it is buff black, gray, white and sometimes blond. These “wolf-like canids” have narrow, heads and can weigh up to 80 pounds. The red wolf is smaller than a gray wolf but slightly bigger then a coyote. It is 4.5-5.5 feet and 27” from shoulder to shoulder. Red wolves have big bushy tails and claws like a dog. Their big rounded ears stick up like a German Shepard’s.
The Canis Rufus (scientific name) starts mating at only 2-3 years old! Red wolf packs vary from 10 to 100 wolves in each pack. Red wolves hunt for food and get water from a stream. These carnivores eat white-tailed deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, other rodents and sometimes even cattle. In December through April red wolves mate. They can have 2-6 pups at a time and are mostly dependent on their mother for at least 2 months.
Most red wolves live in Ozark / Ouachita mountain region of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and southern Texas. Red wolves like warm or mild weather but can live in the cold if they have no choice. They like open, grassy fields and forest. Their den is dug in a hollowed out logs ditch banks, or under rock out crops.
The red wolf was endangered for over 60 years! Endangered means that a species of animal or plant is nearly gone and there aren’t a lot of them. The red wolf was misunderstood and that led to a lot of hunting, killing, and poaching them. People mistake them for coyotes and other wolves. A good thing is that the A.R.N.W.R. and the U.S.F.W.S. are breeding them and reproducing them in animal preservers.
I hope that now you can visualize this beautiful animal digging a den and living in its natural habitat. With our help, one day they can be taken off the endangered list and will never become extinct.