Red wolves have several coat colors including black, brown, gray and yellow.
The reddish coats for which they are named was typical of some Texan populations. As medium-sized canids, red wolves are smaller and more slender than their gray wolf cousins, but larger than coyotes. Adult males weigh 60 to 80 pounds. Females are smaller and weigh 40 to 60 pounds. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, in 1980 fewer than 20 wolves were rounded up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be bred in captivity.