Thered wolf (Canis rufus) is asubspecies ofwolf. It is an endangered species ofwolf from EasternNorth America.
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 northeasternNorth 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 acoyote. It is slender and long-legged, and it lives in the wild only on theAlbemarle Peninsula in North Carolina. It hunts small mammals, rodents, andwhite-tailed deer.
There is a lot of controversy about itstaxonomy, which is not settled yet.
