Red wolves, a shy canine found nowhere else in the world, live in northeastern North Carolina, where people can learn about them and sometimes hear their howls at night at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Though called red wolves, they are mostly brown with some black along their backs, with a deep reddish tinge on their muzzles, the backs of their legs, and behind their ears. They are members of the canine family and weigh 55 to 85 pounds, larger than coyotes but smaller than gray wolves. Once ranging across the entire southeastern United States, red wolves were devastated by centuries of persecution and habitat destruction and by 1980 had disappeared from the wild. Recovery under the federal Endangered Species Act began after the species was declared endangered in 1967, with scientists capturing the last wild red wolves for captive breeding in 1973. In 1987, four pairs of captive-bred wolves were released in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in the first reintroduction of an extinct species to the wild, and in 1988 the first litter of red wolf pups in the wild in almost a decade was born. By 2004, 55 pups were born in 18 red wolf packs, and today more than 100 red wolves live in a 1.5 million-acre recovery area near the Outer Banks. Their return benefits the environment by helping keep white-tailed deer herds healthy, increasing ground-nesting bird populations by reducing nest predators, and providing natural control of non-native nutria, while also boosting tourism through howlings, nature tours, and wolf education programs.