C. rufus Skull Replica measures 8.8 x 4.6 x 3.5. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). C. rufus Skull is museum quality polyurethane replica made in USA. Known as Red Wolf.
C. rufus adults measure 53.5–65 in. in length, comprising a tail of about 14.6 in. Their weight ranges from 44-85 lb. with males averaging 64 lb. and females 55 lb.
The Red Wolf has been compared by some authors to the greyhound in general form, owing to its relatively long and slender limbs. The ears are also proportionately larger than the coyote’s and gray wolf’s.
The skull is typically narrow, with a long and slender rostrum, a small braincase and a well developed sagittal crest. Its cerebellum is unlike that of other Canis species, being closer in form to that of canids of the Vulpes and Urocyon genera, thus indicating that the red wolf is one of the more plesiomorphic members of its genus.
Its pelage is typically more reddish and sparsely furred than the coyote’s and gray wolf’s, though melanistic individuals do occur. Its fur is generally tawny to grayish in color, with light markings around the lips and eyes.
C. rufus were originally distributed throughout the southeastern and south-central United States from the Atla ntic Ocean to central Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Illinois in the west, and in the north from the Ohio River Valley, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York south to the Gulf of Mexico.
The C. rufus was nearly driven to extinction by the mid-1900s due to aggressive predator-control programs, habitat destruction, and extensive hybridization with coyotes.
By the late 1960s, it occurred in small numbers in the Gulf Coast of western Louisiana and eastern Texas.
Fourteen of these survivors were selected to be the founders of a captive-bred population, which was established in the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium between 1974 and 1980.
After a successful experimental relocation to Bulls Island off the coast of South Carolina in 1978, the C. rufus was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 to proceed with restoration efforts.
In 1987, the captive animals were released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina, with a second release, since reversed, taking place two years later in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Of 63 Red Wolf or C. rufus released from 1987 to 1994 the population rose to as many as 100 to 120 individuals in 2012, but due to the lack of regulation enforcement by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the population had declined to 40 individuals in 2018 and about 14 as of 2019.
The C. rufus proper taxonomic classification in essence, whether it is an admixture of wolf and coyote or a third, distinct species has been contentious for well over a century and is still under debate. Because of this, it is sometimes excluded from endangered species lists despite its critically low numbers.
Under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently recognizes the C. rufus as an endangered species and grants protected status.
C. rufus is not listed in the CITES Appendices of endangered species. Since 1996 the IUCN has listed it as a critically endangered species.
