Red Wolves
There are a lot of different wolves but me favorite is Red Wolves because they are one of the most endangered species of animals on the entire planet. Even more than Snow Leaporeds and Pandas.
Red Wolf Facts
Despite their name, red wolves can have a variety of coat colors including yellow, black, brown, gray, and red. Often the fur behind their legs and ears will have a reddish tint.
They are similar in size to a German shepherd dog. The males grow to around 30 inches tall at the shoulder and weigh around 60 to 80 pounds. They are smaller than gray wolves, but bigger than coyotes. The females are slightly smaller than the males.
Red wolves are carnivores and, therefore, mostly eat meat. Their primary food consists of small rodents, rabbits, raccoons, and deer. They will also eat insects and berries.
Red wolves live in North America. At one time there were red wolves over much of the Southeastern United States, however, due to habitat loss and hunting, they became extinct in the wild in 1980. Fortunately, there were still some red wolves living in zoos. Since then they have been reintroduced into the wild and now live in protected areas in North Carolina. Red wolves prefer the habitats of forests, costal prairies, and sometimes swamps.
Yes, red wolves live and travel in packs of five to eight animals. The wolf pack will have a territory that it will defend from other packs. They sometimes hunt alone or together with the pack. The wolves communicate through a variety of noises such as howling, scent markings, facial expressions, and body movements. For example, the dominant leaders will lift their tails and stand tall when facing another wolf. In each pack, there is a dominant male wolf and a dominant female wolf that lead the pack. Usually only the dominate pair of wolves will have puppies.
There are many debates about what a Red Wolf is. Most say that it is a hybrid of a Coyote and Grey Wolf. Most think that beacuse it is bigger than a Coyote but smaller than a Grey Wolf. They also say that because a Red Wolf has mostly the same structure as a Grey Wolf but has the fur of a Coyote, and in a DNA test result it said that it had both Grey Wolf and Coyote DNA. Some also say a Red Wolf is more than just a hybrid between a Coyote and a Red Wolf and that some differnt animals are also in it's DNA.
