Red Wolves will occasionally eat insects and berries. Unlike the Grey Wolf, the Red Wolf eats mainly small animals including rabbits, raccoons and rodents. Red Wolves in captivity can live up to 15 years old, however, there life span in the wild is somewhat shorter averaging around 6 – 7 years. Both parents help raise the offspring who are mature enough to leave behind parental support at 6 months of age. After this time, the female gives birth to between 2 – 6 pups. Gestation period is between 60 and 63 days. Once bonded, they breed once a year, usually in late winter. Red Wolves tend to pair off with a mate for life. Thanks to these programs, nearly 100 red wolves currently live in the wild, including 68 wolves that have been outfitted with radio collars. Today, approximately 155 captive red wolves reside at 37 captive breeding facilities across the US, including two island programs. Although they were declared extinct in the wild in 1980, fortunately there were enough captive animals by 1987 to begin a reintroduction program. Fish and Wildlife Service to be bred in captivity. Fewer than 20 pure red wolves were gathered up by and American organisation called the U.S. Red Wolves were almost hunted to the brink of extinction in 1980. The Red Wolf has long ears and long legs. The Red wolf has a smooth reddish coat, silver-grey forehead, darker marks on white legs and a cream colored underbelly. Adult male Red Wolves typically has a height at the shoulder of 38 – 40 centimetres (15 – 16 inches), a length of 140 – 165 centimetres (4.5 – 5.5 feet) and weighs 18 – 36 kilograms (40 – 80 pounds). The Red Wolf is a medium-sized canid, smaller and more slender than the Grey Wolf, however, the Red Wolf is larger than the coyote. In the last century, however, persecution, habitat destruction and hybridizations with Coyotes have brought the Red Wolf to the brink of extinction. On the basis of further study, the Red Wolfs historic range is now thought to have extended further north into the northeastern USA and extreme eastern Canada. It is thought that the Red Wolfs original distribution included much of eastern North America, where Red Wolves were found from Pennsylvania in the east, Florida in the south and Texas in the west. The Red Wolf (Canis Rufus) is the rarest and most endangered of all the wolf species.
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