120 Order CARNIVORA 



to accounts of early explorers and settlers. Reports indicate that 

 it attacked large game animals and livestock, even hauling down 

 young horses. The wolf probably fed rather extensively on 

 bison, elk, and deer before the coming of the white man to the 

 Illinois country. 



By the middle 1800's, the timber wolf in Illinois had been 

 greatly reduced in numbers and before the end of the century 

 it had been completely eliminated from the state. The wolt 

 bounties that have been paid since that time are for coyotes or 

 prairie wolves, dogs, or coyote-dog hybrids. The subspecies that 

 occurred in Illinois was Canis lupus lycaon Schreber. The spe- 

 cies has a range that includes most of Canada and Alaska and 

 parts of some north-central states, including Wisconsin. Also, 

 it occurs in isolated areas of Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and Mexico. 



CANIS NIGER Bartram 

 Red Wolf 



Description. — The red wolf is intermediate in size between 

 the timber wolf and the coyote. It is about 5 feet long and 

 weighs 60 to 70 pounds. The broad nose and the rounded ears 

 are more like those of the timber wolf than those of the coyote. 

 The sides of the muzzle are buffy red and the coat color has a 

 buffy cast. 



The skull is slightly smaller (length about 245 mm. or 9-\s 

 inches) than that of the timber wolf; the crowns of the teeth 

 are more deeply cleft, and the shearing edges more bladelike. 

 The tooth arrangement is the same as that of the coyote and 

 of the timber wolf. 



Distribution. — In former times the red wolf occurred prob- 

 ably along the Mississippi and other rivers in the southern part 

 of Illinois. A young male, now preserved in the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, was obtained on February 7. 1893. 

 at Warsaw, Illinois, by C. K. Worthen. The red wolf still 

 occurs in fair numbers in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri 

 and Arkansas and southward to Louisiana and eastern Texas. 

 There is the possibility that some individuals may live in, or 

 stray into, the heavily wooded portions of extreme southern 

 Illinois. The subspecies in Illinois was Canis niger gregoryi 

 Goldman. 



