Gray Wolf

DID YOU KNOW?

The Gray wolf is actually one of the most social carnivores!

The largest of wolves, the Gray Wolf has fur that ranges between white and black depending on where they live. Gray wolves live in packs so that they can successfully hunt prey much larger than themselves such as deer, bison, and moose. They can be found in northern USA, Europe, Asia and parts of Canada. The Gray wolf is only one of the three wolf species in the world with the other two being the Red Wolf (found only in the United States) and the Ethiopian Wolf.

WOLVES IN POP-CULTURE

The Gray wolf while the largest one today, is by no means the largest wolf to have ever existed. That title belongs to the now extinct Dire wolf. The same Dire wolf, popularly featured in the fantasy book and TV series Game of Thrones, did in fact exist 300,000 years ago in North America! Many people today don’t realize that certain Native American tribes had traditional stories featuring tribe members as wolf shape-shifters long before today’s popular werewolf fiction existed.

CURRENT STATUS:

The species is currently listed as endangered in most of the US.

CHALLENGES:

The Gray wolf used to have the largest living range apart from humans and were spread throughout the northern hemisphere living even as far as southern India. Today these wolves are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation (where the habitat is divided up into smaller discontinuous patches). While the Gray wolf is also listed as least concern on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species, the US Fish and Wildlife Services has listed it as endangered in many states across the US.

Wolf Pups Born at Brookfield Zoo

CALIFORNIA WOLF CENTER

OUR ALLY FOR PROTECTING THE GRAY WOLF

California Wolf Center

The California Wolf Center runs Wolf Recovery programs, including one for the Mexican Gray Wolf, a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. Their goal is to promote the recovery of wolf populations in their natural habitats while supporting ranching communities who are sharing the landscape with this icon. Through their involvement in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan, they are part of a captive breeding program for the wolf designed to help prevent its extinction. They have supported U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in successfully releasing multiple wolves into the wild born at their Center!

Our allies at The California Wolf Center say that these actions can help out the Gray Wolf:

Invite your friends over to share what you know about wolves and why you think they are important - have a bake sale together to support wolves!
If you eat meat, show your family Crowd Cow and Mt. Shasta Wild to buy beef from ranchers who are conscious stewards of the open space. By eating beef from ranchers who value wildlife and healthy ecosystems you also support those things!
Visit the California Wolf Center, or even better: Volunteer at the California Wolf Center! You don’t have to be a wolf expert to help out with the cause
Join the California Wolf Center - an organization working to make long term wild wolf recovery a reality in our state!
Send California Wolf Center thank you letters to ranchers that are coexisting with wolves and California Wolf Center will share them with the ranchers we work with.

SOURCES

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED IN PROTECTING THE GRAY WOLF

Image by Arne von Brill (CC by 2.0)