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Latin name: Canis Rufus

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Chordate

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Size: About 4 feet long and stand about 26 inches off the ground.
Color: Gray-black but has a reddish cast.

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Red wolves can be found in Eastern North Carolina Albemarle Peninsula.

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You can adopt a red wolf. Speak up for wildlife. Stay informed of the updates about the red wolves wildlife. Become a defender for wildlife.

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Red wolves are the top carnivores of the food chain. They eat a variety of white-tailed deer, raccoons, rabbits and other rodents.

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What might happen if the Red Wolf went extinct and how would it affect the ecosystem? If Red Wolves went extinct, they would affect their ecosystem in a big way because they are one of the top carnivores in its food chain.

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If they were to go fully extinct, there would be drastic changes in animal populations. Red Wolf prey would increase in population size and could possibly over-populate.

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Unnecessary removals from private lands, lethal take permits for non-problem wolves, the abandonment of the adaptive management strategy, and a reluctance to address poaching has led to a drastic decline of the red wolf's population over the course of just a few years.

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The red wolf is a smaller, thinner cousin of the gray wolf.

It has a distinctive reddish cast for which it is named. The red wolf is the world's most endangered canid, and the Southeast's native wolf. Uniquely "All-American," the red wolf's entire historical range is confined within what is now the United States.

Once roaming as far west as Texas, down into Florida, and up into the Midwest, the red wolf now persists in only a fraction of its range. It has lost more of its historical territory-99.7 percent-than any other large carnivore, including lions, tigers and snow leopards. The red wolf has faced an embattled road to recovery since its listing in the first class of the Endangered Species Act.

At one point, the population grew to over 150 animals, before falling victim to political pressure, illegal management and agency inaction.

Defenders has been working on red wolf recovery since the mid-1980s through a combination of advocacy and public education.

In 2016, Defenders brought on two full-time field conservation staff to lead a grassroots outreach effort in North Carolina to increase awareness of the critical situation for wild red wolves in Eastern North Carolina. We have engaged in lawsuits to force FWS and NCWRC to protect this critically endangered species.

In the spring of 2017, FWS announced plans to review and update the 10(j) rule that regulates management of the wild "nonessential experimental population" of red wolves in North Carolina. Defenders helped mobilize nearly 55,000 of our members and the public to speak up in support of the red wolf recovery program.

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The red wolf is a smaller, thinner cousin of the gray wolf. It has a distinctive reddish cast for which it is named. The red wolf is the world's most endangered canid, and the Southeast's native wolf. Uniquely "All-American," the red wolf's entire historical range is confined within what is now the United States.

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A recent global study found that the red wolf has lost 99.7 percent of its historical territory-more than any other large carnivore. What remains of its historical range is 1.7 million acres of private and public land in Eastern North Carolina. This matrix of agricultural fields, pine plantations, pocosin wetlands and forests, provides sufficient connectivity and prey for the time being, but is inadequate for the long-term sustainability of red wolves.
Mismanagement
The greatest threat to the red wolf is the way in which the species is being managed. Unnecessary removals from private lands, lethal take permits for non-problem wolves, the abandonment of the adaptive management strategy, and a reluctance to address poaching has led to a drastic decline of the red wolf's population over the course of just a few years. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) fails to take proactive measures, the species could go extinct in the wild in less than a decade.

However, the FWS has signaled its reluctance to take the necessary action to continue red wolf recovery efforts. In fact, in 2016, the FWS proposed a plan to largely abandon recovery efforts. In particular, the agency proposed removing most red wolves from the wild, shrinking the species' wild territory by 88 percent and confining wolves to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent federal lands. This would only leave room for a single wild pack of red wolves, and would effectively extinguish what remains of the red wolf's historic territory.

In addition, the FWS has all but abandoned pup-fostering techniques, refused to release any additional wolves, terminated hybridization management efforts, failed to address poaching, allowed landowners to shoot non-problem wolves, and has actively aided in the removal of non-problem wolves from private property.

Recently, lawmakers included a provision in the Fiscal Year 2018 Senate Appropriations Committee's spending bill for the Department of the Interior to terminate the red wolf recovery program and declare them extinct in the wild.
Climate Change
Given that the entire current range of the red wolf in the wild is located in a small coastal area at roughly three feet in elevation, the impacts of climate change - including storm surges and sea level rise - loom large as a threat to their future.

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A recent global study found that the red wolf has lost 99.7 percent of its historical territory-more than any other large carnivore. What remains of its historical range is 1.7 million acres of private and public land in Eastern North Carolina.