The Grey Wolf

The Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) is an endangered species that lives mostly in North America, Canada, Mexico, some of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Russia, with subspecies of the wolf living in those same countries also.

The grey wolf is commonly confused with its relative the coyote. It is the largest member of its family and its color is anywhere from a grizzled gray, black to all-white. Females tend to be smaller than the average male. They have broad faces with a big muzzle, round short ears shaped like triangles with paws approximately 4 by 5 inches. They are also said to have a lower and long sounding growl. Males are 26 to 32 inches at the shoulders and are around 55 to 115 pounds. They give birth to litters of four to seven pups in April and May, with a general gestation period of about 2-3 months.

Wolves travel in packs (which is another variation from coyotes). They travel under the Alpha Male and Female, which are the only members of the pack that can mate. The Alpha Male and Female positions are chosen by who’s the best fighter. The subdominant wolves are forced to show their position by crouching and lowering their tails, while the dominant wolf can prance around, and play with them as they please.

The Grey Wolves habitats are tundra’s, forests, deserts, plains and mountains. This is reason why Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming are the ideal spots from them.

Wolves are carnivores (they eat only meat). They tend to usually thrive on larger animals, but will eat smaller animals if needed. Wolves usually kill and eat the animals that are the easiest to capture, therefore weeding out the weak parts in herds, making them stronger. This relationship with the prey is the most evident when Wolves were taken out of Yellowstone National Park. The elk and moose population along with coyotes and other animals started to grow out of control, the bighorn sheep’s pink eye disease was spreading, and food sources were rapidly depleted, however when they returned the wolves to the environment, things eventually snapped back into place for the rest of Yellowstone.

For years wolves were poached. At some times they were poached for their pelts, game, and due to them eating livestock. They were cruelly punished for this crime. Not only were they shot, they were trapped, or trapped then would have gasoline poured on them and then set fire to. Bounties were sent forth to try to get more people to hunt them. This started for the Grey Wolves (other wolf bounties for other species were or could have been set earlier or later) in 1630 in Massachusetts, and later the Unites States paid Indians with 3 quarts of wine or a bushel of corn, for one wolf that was turned in. By 1818 there was a “War of Extermination Order” for bears and wolves and slowly by 1884 bounties were set in at the least 9 states. By 1950 it was app
Finally this became too much! In 1973 the Endangered Species Act was put into order and the wolf was put on the list that August. Efforts slowly started back once more to try to get the wolf population to survive. Not all were successful though, in 1974 four wolves were introduced into an area in Michigan, but do to humans killing them the plan failed. In 1975 the first wolf reproduction (documented) pack was started since the 1950’s, bringing hope and ideas to others that wished for the wolves’ survival. Slowly, after many years the wolf population started to increase and become healthy once more, even after dips in this trend and shooting. In 2004 a hearing was held to once again remove the Grey Wolves from this list due to the fact that in 4 areas where the wolves were reintroduced the population was approximately 3,819 wolves. However in 2005 this plan was ruled against in court. Then finally on 03/12/2007 the Minnesota Grey Wolf was taken off the Endangered Species list. Unfortunately, there was no happily ever after, at least for the Rocky Mountain Grey Wolf that was delisted in April 2009. The wolves were being killed off so quickly that the healthy population formed was no longer substantial and have now been put back on the endangered species list once more. However, more people still and will continue to fight the issue.