Wolves mate in February or March. About 63 days later a litter averaging six pups is born. Gray wolves once roamed the continent from as far north as the Arctic to as far south as Mexico. Today they occupy about one percent of their former range in the contiguous United States. More than 1,000 gray wolves live in northern Minnesota.
Small populations live in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Ten to 15 more live in Michigan's Isle Royal National park and about 30 in or near Montana's Glacier National Park. Gray wolves are common, however, in Alaska and parts of Canada. Since about 10,000 years ago when the last ice sheets retreated. Wolves migrated from the southern Great Plains into the Cascades. For thousands of years, wolves and humans lived in harmony with each other.