This Endangered Species Day, we?re honoring Red Wolves and Mexican gray wolves. With so few living in the wild, these endangered species should be recognized as essential ? the survival of their species depends on it.   

The Red Wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the world?s most endangered wild canids. Once common throughout the southeastern United States, Red Wolf populations were decimated by the 1960s due to intensive predator control programs and loss of habitat. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, Red Wolves were saved from the brink of extinction and a small but growing population now lives in the wild in eastern North Carolina.  

The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is the most genetically distinct lineage of gray wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America. By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. In 1998 the wolves were reintroduced into the wild as part of a federal reintroduction program under the Endangered Species Act. Today in the U.S., there is a single wild population comprised of 319 individuals.