Their legs are long and their feet are wide with ample surface area for traveling over snow. The color of this predatory species can range from totally black to almost white. Most often they are shades of browns, tans, and gray with the muzzle being much lighter in color. The males are typically larger than females. The gray wolf can range from fifty pounds up to one hundred and fifty pounds, with an average of approximately ninety-nine pounds.
Weight depends on food availability and muscle mass gained from travel and hunting.
As carnivores, these animals use their forty-two teeth to kill other animals such as deer, elk caribou, moose, bison, musk ox, Dall's sheep, bighorn sheep, antelope, birds, fish and other smaller mammals as well. Wolves primarily prey upon wild ungulates. They will eat carrion also. In the past, the gray wolf ranged throughout most of North America. Currently they live throughout most of Canada, Alaska, and parts of Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington.