But wolves and humans have a long adversarial history. Though they almost never attack humans, wolves are considered one of the animal world's most fearsome natural villains. They do attack domestic animals, and countless wolves have been shot, trapped, and poisoned because of this tendency. In the lower 48 states, gray wolves were hunted to near extinction, though some populations survived and others have since been reintroduced.
Few gray wolves survive in Europe, though many live in Alaska, Canada, and Asia. Wolves live and hunt in packs of around six to ten animals. They are known to roam large distances, perhaps 12 miles in a single day. These social animals cooperate on their preferred prey—large animals such as deer, elk, and moose. When they are successful, wolves do not eat in moderation. A single animal can consume 20 pounds of meat at a sitting. Wolves also eat smaller mammals, birds, fish, lizards, snakes, and fruit.
Wolfpacks are established according to a strict hierarchy, with a dominant male at the top and his mate not far behind. Usually this male and female are the only animals of the pack to breed. All of a pack's adults help to care for young pups by bringing them food and watching them while others hunt. All rights reserved. Wolves With their piercing looks and spine-tingling howls, wolves inspire both adoration and controversy around the world.
Find out how many wolf species exist, the characteristics that make each wolf's howl unique, and how the wolf population in the continental United States nearly became extinct. Common Name: Gray Wolf. Scientific Name: Canis lupus. Type: Mammals. Diet: Carnivore. The grey wolf then migrated to North America, where it populated what is now Canada and the United States, except for the southeastern section of the latter country. Still Others believe that the dog family originated in North America, migrated to Asia, and then returned.
Wolf ancestors began to develop in the Paleocene, about sixty million years ago. By the Miocene, about twenty million years ago, canines and felines had branched into two separate families. In one ancestor of the wolf, Tomarctus , the fifth toe on the hind leg became vestigal and is evidenced today by the dew claw on both wolves and dogs. Research of wolf history by Robert Wayne at the University of California suggests that a number of wolflike canids diverged from a common ancestor about two to three million years ago.
The first gray wolf, Canis Lupis , probably appeared in Eurasia sometime in the early Pleistocene period about a million years ago. Around , years ago, it is though to have migrated to North America.
The Dire Wolf, Canis Dirus , larger and heavier than the gray wolf, evolved earlier and the two co existed in North America for about , years. As prey became extinct around 16, years ago due to climatic change, the dire wolf gradually became extinct itself. Around 7, years ago the gray wolf became the prime canine predator in North America. The dire wolf was a large canine that exhibited hyena like characteristics. Like thehyena, the dire wolf hunted and scavenged for food.
Researchers suspect that dire wolves, due to their scavenging nature, scattered the bones of animals they killed or that were killed by other prey. The dire wolf was not quite like any animal we have today. It was similar in overall size and mass to a large modern gray wolf. It was about 1. As so often is the case, it was only after wolves had vanished that we began to value what we had lost. The northern gray wolf took a huge step on the road to recovery when the first pack of wild wolves crossed the border from Canada to Glacier National Park, Montana.
Wolf conservationists and advocates, in their joy and disbelief, dubbed them the Magic Pack. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes population grew steadily, spreading into northern Wisconsin. The first substantial reports of wolf sightings in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State came in, and the U. As the northern gray wolf made great strides toward reestablishing itself, its smaller cousin, the Mexican gray wolf Canis lupus baileyi faced oblivion.
Smaller than the typical gray wolf, the Mexican gray is usually sandy or tawny colored, and lives in smaller packs better adapted to high desert environments. This species had already been extinct in the American Southwest by s, and the last few in Mexico were under serious attack.
The year marked its complete extinction in the wild. However, due to pressure from the ESA, the last seven wild individuals were captured and placed in a captive-breeding program.
By using a breeding registry, biologists hoped to preserve the genetic diversity of the animal and save this unique subspecies. In the American Southeast, the red wolf Canis rufus was also faced with dire prospects for survival.
The red wolf is a completely different species from the gray wolf, and the only distinctly American wolf. It is smaller, with reddish and brown coloration, and almost has the appearance of a wolf-coyote cross.
Prior to colonization, the red wolf lived across the East Coast and Southeastern seaboard. However, like the gray, the red wolf was hunted to extinction throughout its range.
By , red wolves survived only in captivity, their breeding highly regulated in order to preserve precious genetic diversity.
Eager onlookers watch as wolves are transported to Yellowstone. The watershed moment in wolf policy and recovery over the past century was undoubtedly the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in After years of political debates and grassroots efforts, the U.
One female wolf traveled over 60 miles in the first day looking for her Canadian homeland. In cooperation with the U.
To prevent this reaction, the first wolves to inhabit Yellowstone were reintroduced more gradually. They spent three months in acclimation pens in the back country, until the dominant male of what would come to be known as the Crystal Creek pack mustered up the courage to take his first steps out of the pen and into a new era for wolves. Despite the disappointment of some wolves being illegally poached as they roamed around the fringes of the park, biologists were overjoyed as packs established territories and gave birth to the first litter of pups to be born in Yellowstone in nearly 70 years.
Over the past four decades or so, the wild wolf population in the contiguous U. Even in the s, it looked like wolves would eventually disappear entirely from the plains, forests and mountains of America.
Yet, as people searched ever more desperately for a true connection to nature and realized the terrible consequences of the war against wildlife, we slowly and painfully learned the value of balanced ecosystems and the animals that inhabit them.
Since the return of wolves, the grasses and trees have rejuvenated, and biodiversity has increased. Wolves are coursing predators, meaning that they make their prey run. Photo courtesy of NPS. Yellowstone is a unique case, but similar effects have been noted elsewhere. All this is to say that the wolf has an extremely important function in maintaining healthy environments, and is a creature to be respected, not feared. Gray wolves now inhabit 13 different states, with California being the most recently recolonized.
These decisions have often been driven by politics rather than science.
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