Distinguishing Features: There are many ways to distinguish the red wolf (canis rufus) from the other two species it can be easily confused with. These two other species are the gray wolf (canis lupus) and the coyote (canis latrans). The first way of which is size. The red wolf will be nearly exactly in the middle of the size of the gray wolf and the coyote. This usually means they will be 50-80 pounds depending on age, gender, and habitat. Another way to distinguish the red wolf apart from the two other confusable species is color. Staying true to its name, the red wolf sports a combination of red coloring and some common colors of the wolf as well. They are mostly brown and buff colored sometimes with red shading around their ears, muzzle, and the backs of their legs. Another way to distinguish the red wolf is by the hunting aspect of behavior. Unlike mostly all other species of the Canids, the red wolf is known to hunt on its own.

Hunting: As I stated above, the red wolf is known to hunt on its own. This behavior results in predation of smaller prey such as white-tailed deer, raccoons and small mammals such as rabbits and rodents. They have also been known to prey on domestic pets and livestock, but in very small numbers. Scientists are thinking that the hunting individually may be because of the rapidly diminishing numbers of the red wolf, as it is now close to extinction.

Pack Life: Even though they hunt solitarily, they do live in packs. Although slightly less conformed,there is still an alpha-breeding pair, offspring, and a few other wolves which aid in the raising of pups. These packs are more apt to split up then other wolf packs, so in the wild you will see more singular red wolves in the wild then gray wolves.

Geographic Range: Southeast and SouthCentral United States. Early this century the Red wolf lived as far north as Pennsylvania, as far south as Florida and as west as central Texas. Recently, however, the red wolf has dissappeared from most locations and is now held dearly in the hands of rehabilitation parks all over the country.

Rehabilitation: Unlike the gray wolf rehabilitation program, the red wolf rehabilitation program is operated much more urgently, as the gray wolves are found in nearly all of the continents. However, red wolves are not found outside of the Eastern United States.