The red wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the most endangered mammals on the planet. Once ranging from Texas to Florida to Pennsylvania, it was relegated to a remnant population in coastal eastern Texas and western Louisiana. In the middle of the last century, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that the fragmented population was threatened with loss due to hybridization with coyotes. The remaining red wolves were captured and brought into captivity ? rendering them extinct in the wild.