Grey Wolves

The grey wolf has between 5 and 24 subspecies that is recognized in North America and 7 to 12 are recognized in Eurasia, with 1 recognized in Africa.

Grey wolves once used to roam all over North America, but by the mid 1930’s, they were killed off in most areas of the United States. Today, their range has been reduced to Alaska, Canada, Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies. With a historic range of over two-thirds of the United States, they now only occupy less than 10% of that range.

Today, grey wolves have populations in Alaska, northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, western Montana, northern Idaho, northeast Oregon, and the Yellowstone area of Wyoming. Mexican wolves, a subspecies of the grey wolf, were reintroduced to protected parkland in eastern Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

Because of natural migration from Canada, reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, there are now more wolves in the northern Rockies and some are now moving into the West Coast states, including California.

In the western Great Lakes region, the grey wolf population grew to around 4,500. In the northern Rockies the population is around 1,766 wolves. The Pacific northwest has around 250 wolves and Alaska has 7,700 to 11,200 wolves. There is 114 mexican grey wolves in the southwest recovery area (southwest New Mexico, east Arizona). And in North Carolina there are 24 known red wolves.

Grey wolves hunt mainly at night, especially when the weather is warm and in areas populated by humans. Being carnivores, wolves eat large hoofed mammals such as elk, deer, moose, bison and caribou. Grey wolves also hunt smaller mammals such as beaver, rabbits, hares, and other small prey. Wolves in western Canada even fish for Pacific salmon. A large amount of prey that wolves hunt are young, old, or in poor condition.

Because of folklore, mythology and tall tales, the grey wolf has had an impact on humans and are now victims of misunderstandings that few other animals have shared. After the arrival of European settlers, the wolf has been viewed as an evil creature, a danger to humans, a competitor for big animals and a threat to livestock. Depredation of livestock was the main justification for hunting wolves from virtually all of the United States, Mexico and even most Europe.

Despite what media and people say, wolves are only responsible to around 0.02% of all livestock losses. Data is self-reported by ranchers and farmers to the National Agricultural Statistic Services (NASS), which releases public reports every few years. The reports show that 95% of livestock losses are due to disease, dehydration, starvation, respiratory infections, birthing complications, bad weather and ingestion of poisonous weeds and plants; not to do with any sort of predators.

Of the small amount of losses due with predators, wolves are on the very bottom of the list. Surprisingly, domestic dogs cause far more losses than wolves do. Science shows that killing wolves to prevent conflicts can do the opposite of the intended effect – chances are it can result in more conflict, shift the problem to other ranchers and farmers, and it can result in decreased social tolerance by people to coexist with wolves.