Red Wolf Recovery Plan

Parker, Warren; Peterson, David; Abraham, George; Herring, Joe; Young, Mary

The red wolf (Canis rufus) is a little-known North American canine that once ranged over the Southeastern United States, from the Atlantic Ocean to central Texas and from the Gulf of Mexico to central Missouri and southern Illinois. It was first described by Bartram (1791) in the 18th century and was believed to have consisted of three subspecies, Canis rufus foridanus,Cani s rufus rufus, and Cani s rufus gregoryi. The eastern subspecies (C. r. floridanus) became extinct early in tnis century (Young and Goldman, 1944). The western subspecies (f. !. rufus), thought by McCarley (1962) to be a hybrid form resulting from breeding the coyote (C. latrans) and Canis rufus gregoryi, and therefore not a valid taxon, is believed to have recently become extinct in the pure form (Carley, 1975). Recent findings indicate that the only extant subspecies (C. r.gregoryi), once occurring from eastern Texas to eastern Mississippi, for all practical purposes is extinct in the wild in the pure form (McCarley and Carley, 1979).