Historically, most Native Americans revered

gray wolves, trying to emulate their cunning

and hunting abilities. However, wolves

became nearly extinct in the lower 48 states

in the early part of the 20th century because

settlers believed wolves caused widespread

livestock losses. Constantly persecuted and

targeted by large scale predator eradication

programs sponsored by the federal

government, wolves have been pursued with

more passion and determination than any

other animal in U.S. history. By the time

wolves were finally protected by the

Endangered Species Act of 1973, they had

been exterminated from the lower 48 states,

except for a few hundred that inhabited

extreme northeastern Minnesota.

Second only to humans in their adaption to

climate extremes throughout the world, gray

wolves were equally at home in the deserts

of Israel, the deciduous forests of Virginia

and the frozen Arctic of Siberia. Within the

continental United States, gray wolves once

ranged from coast to coast and from Canada

to Mexico.

Wolf groups, or packs, usually consist of a

set of parents (alpha pair), their offspring

and other non-breeding adults. Wolves begin

mating when they are 2 to 3 years old,

sometimes establishing lifelong mates.

Wolves usually rear their pups in dens for

the first six weeks. Dens are often used year

after year, but wolves may also dig new dens

or use some other type of shelter, such as a

cave. An average of five pups are born in

early spring and are cared for by the entire

pack. They depend on their mother’s milk

for the first month, then they are gradually

weaned and fed regurgitated meat brought

by other pack members. By 7 to 8 months of

age, when they are almost fully grown, the

pups begin traveling with the adults. Often,

after 1 or 2 years of age, a young wolf leaves

and tries to find a mate and form its own

pack. Lone dispersing wolves have traveled

as far as 500 miles in search of a new home.

Wolf packs usually live within a specific

territory. Territories range in size from 50

square miles to more than 1,000 square miles

depending on how much prey is available and

seasonal prey movements. Packs use a

traditional area and defend it from strange

wolves. Their ability to travel over large areas

to seek out vulnerable prey makes wolves

good hunters. Wolves may travel as far as 30

miles in a day. Although they usually trot

along at 5 m.p.h., wolves can attain speeds as

high as 45 m.p.h for short distances.

Indirectly, wolves support a wide variety of

other animals. Ravens, foxes, wolverines,

vultures and even bears feed on the remains of

animals killed by wolves. In some areas, bald

eagles routinely feed on the carcasses of

animals killed by wolves during the winter.

Antelope are swift, elk are alert, and mountain

goats can climb steep cliffs because of the long

term evolutionary effect of wolf predation.

Wolves also help regulate the balance between

these ungulates (hoofed animals) and their

food supply, making room for smaller planteaters such as beaver and small rodents.

Wolves are noted for their distinctive howl,

which they use as a form of communication.

Biologists do not know all of the reasons why

wolves howl, but they may do so before and

after a hunt, to sound an alarm and to locate

other members of the pack when separated.

Wolves howl more frequently in the evening

and early morning, especially during winterbreeding and pup rearing. Howling is also

one way that packs warn other wolves to

stay out their territory.

Early settlers moving westward severely

depleted most populations of bison, deer, elk

and moose—animals that were important

prey for wolves. With little alternative,

wolves turned to sheep and cattle that had

replaced their natural prey. To protect

livestock, ranchers and government agencies

Gray wolf

Canis lupus

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Western settlers believed that the gray

wolf caused widespread livestock losses,

leading to the wolf’s near extinction in

the lower 48 states in the early part of the

20th century. Under large scale predator

control programs, wolves were hunted

and killed with more passion and zeal

than any other animal in U.S. history.
began a campaign to eliminate wolves.

Bounty programs initiated in the 19th

century continued as late as 1965, offering

$20 to $50 per wolf. Wolves were trapped,

shot from planes and snowmobiles, dug from

their dens, and hunted with dogs. Animal

carcasses salted with strychnine were left

out for wolves to eat. Unfortunately this

practice also indiscriminately killed eagles,

ravens, foxes, bears and other animals which

fed on the poisoned carrion.

Today about 2,200 wolves live in the wild in

Minnesota, fewer than twenty on Lake

Superior’s Isle Royale, about120 in Michigan’s

Upper Peninsula, 120 in Wisconsin, and about

240 in the northern Rocky Mountains of

Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Wolves

currently are being reintroduced to Arizona

and New Mexico. An occasional wolf is seen in

Washington State, North Dakota or South

Dakota. Populations fluctuate with food

availability and strife within packs, and,

primarily, due to killing by people.

Gray wolves are listed under the

Endangered Species Act as threatened

species in Minnesota and as endangered

species elsewhere in the lower 48 states.

Endangered means a species is considered

in danger of extinction throughout all or a

significant portion of its range, and

threatened means a species may become

endangered. In Alaska, wolf populations

number 5,900 to 7,200 and are not

considered endangered or threatened.

Wolf recovery under the Endangered

Species Act has been so successful that in

June 1998 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

announced that it would review the species’

status and consider delisting or reclassifying

specific wolf populations where appropriate.

The wolf ’s comeback has been attributed to

a combination of scientific research,

conservation and management programs,

and education efforts that helped to increase

public understanding of wolves.

Successful reintroduction and management

programs have greatly accelerated wolf

recovery in the Rocky Mountains. Gray

wolves have greatly expanded their numbers

thanks to science-based wolf and wolf

habitat management; restoration of wolf

prey species such as deer, elk and moose;

and habitat and legal protection.

In Minnesota, where the largest wolf

population in the lower 48 states resides, a

state program provides compensation for

livestock confirmed to be killed by wolves,

and a federal program provides for trapping

of individual wolves guilty of depredation. In

other areas a private compensation program

run by an organization that supports wolf

restoration, the Defenders of Wildlife, pays

for livestock killed by wolves.

Wolf recovery and management are very

polarized, controversial, and emotional issues

often stemming from people’s attitudes, fears

and misunderstandings more than wolves

themselves. Attitudes are often based on

inaccurate information, making wolf

management perhaps more difficult than

any other wildlife management program.

For example, some people continue to carry

the unfounded fear that wolves attack people

or threaten outdoor activities. In fact, wolves

generally avoid humans. While wolves

certainly have the ability to kill people, there

has never been a verified report of a healthy

wild wolf deliberately attacking or seriously

injuring a human in North America. Wolves

can be very tolerant of human activity if they

are not deliberately persecuted so there is

rarely a reason to restrict human activity,

including logging and mining, simply

because wolves live in the area.

For the past twenty years, Yellowstone

National Park has been at the center of

debates over the wolf. By about 1930, wolves

had been deliberately extirpated from the

western United States, including Yellowstone.

After years of comprehensive study and

planning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

reintroduced gray wolves into Yellowstone

and U.S. Forest Service lands in central

Idaho. In 1995 and 1996, 31 wolves from

Canada were temporarily held in pens before

being released in Yellowstone National Park.

At the same time 35 wolves were released on

remote Forest Service lands in Idaho. All of

the reintroduced wolves were fitted with

radio collars and monitored by biologists

from the Fish and Wildlife Service and other

cooperating agencies. The reintroduction has

been very successful and by December 1997

about 80 wolves lived in each area.

The Yellowstone and Idaho wolves are

designated as non-essential, experimental

under the Endangered Species Act. This

designation allows federal, state and tribal

agencies and private citizens more flexibility

in managing these populations. Wolves that

prey on livestock will be removed and, if

necessary, destroyed. Ranchers may kill

wolves they catch in the act of preying on

their livestock on private lands. They may be

issued a permit to do the same on public

lands after certain conditions are met. The

experimental program has worked so well in

the northwestern United States that a

similar effort is being used to restore

Mexican wolves to their historic range in the

southwestern United States.

Mexican gray wolves are the southernmost

occurring, rarest and most genetically

distinct type of gray wolf in North America.

They once lived in the mountainous regions

of the Southwest from central Mexico

throughout portions of southern Arizona,

New Mexico and Texas. Mexican wolves, or

lobos as they were called by the Spanishspeaking people, were extirpated by

aggressive predator control programs.

Until recently Mexican wolves only existed

in captivity. In March 1998, the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service released three Mexican wolf

packs into the Apache National Forest in

eastern Arizona. These wolves are the first

to exist in the wild in the United States since

1970, when the last Mexican wolf was killed.

Reintroductions will continue for 3 to 5 years

with the goal of establishing 100 wolves in

eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Like the Yellowstone and Idaho wolves, the

reintroduced Mexican wolf population has

been designated a non-essential,

experimental population, providing for

greater management flexibility to address

the concerns of local residents.

Wolf recovery efforts represent an

opportunity to redress past mistakes and

enhance our understanding not only of

wolves themselves, but also the complex

interactions among species in their natural

environments.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

http://www.fws.gov

July 1998

After years of comprehensive study and

planning, an effort is now underway to

reintroduce gray wolves from Canada into

Yellowstone National Park and central

Idaho as part of recovery actions for the

animal. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

is considering delisting or reclassifying

populations of wolves that have been

sufficiently recovered.