America’s Forgotten Wolf Still Lives In North Carolina

America’s Wolf

Placing each step carefully and delicately, its paws fall quietly through the fallen leaves as the wolf trots by. Its coat, a mottled grey with hints of copper, has grown appropriately full for the season. Halting suddenly, it perks its ears, investigating an unknown sound, only to take up a steady pace once again.

This species is one that, at the turn of the century, was brought to the very brink of extinction only to be tentatively rescued at the last minute. It is a species that epitomized the New World and its vast, dark forests to the early European settlers. Yet today few even realize it exists.

The red wolf, Canis rufus, endemic to the United States, once chased deer from New England throughout the Southeast and as far west as Texas. Smaller than its relative, the gray wolf and larger than a coyote, it has the presence of the former and timidness of the latter. The red wolf seems perfectly built for racing through the broadleaf forests of the east, taking down everything from white-tailed deer to small rodents.

via America’s Forgotten Wolf Still Lives In North Carolina.