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Neat to know ~ Creature of the week
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The Gray Wolf
2020-11-09
– The gray wolf has been listed as an endangered species in North America for over 45 years. However, at the end of October, the Trump administration announced that it will remove the wolf from the list of protected wildlife. This means that gray wolves living in the lower 48 states will no longer receive federal protection. Trump’s Secretary of the Interior since 2019, David Bernhardt, said in a press release that “…the gray wolf has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery,” and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency within Bernhardt’s department, stated that the gray wolf population is now “stable and healthy.”
– Wildlife conservation groups, however, condemn the move. They say that wolf populations are still fragile and must continue to be protected by the federal government. Critics see this latest removal of protections as yet another in a series of moves by the Trump administration to demolish long-standing environmental regulations.
Read on to learn more about the beloved – but also maligned and mistreated – gray wolf.
Wolf facts
- The gray wolf’s Latin name is canis lupus (“dog wolf”).
- There are numerous subspecies of gray wolf that can be found in North America. And they aren’t all gray! The Arctic wolf, for instance, is white from head to tail, while the Mexican wolf has a variegated coat of reds, grays, and browns.
- Gray wolves are in the dog family. Their DNA differs from that of dogs by just 0.2%.
- Females are usually smaller than males.
- In the wild, gray wolves typically live for five to seven years.
All in the family
- Wolves are social creatures. They live in groups – called packs – of six to eight members. These packs are organized, and each wolf knows its place on the social ladder. The pack’s bosses are called the alpha male and the alpha female. They are actually the parents of most of the other wolves in the pack, although an unrelated wolf or two might also be a member of the group. The alpha male and female often stay together for life.
- Wolf mothers give birth in the spring. Their puppies are born in litters of about four to six. Newborn wolves are both blind and deaf; the defenseless young must grow up quickly in order to survive in the wild. In less than a year, they are full-grown, and within two years, they are mature adults. Multiple members of the pack help to raise the young – not just the parents. Wolves keep strong family bonds. They show affection for one another and are fiercely protective of their own.
Teamwork and communication
- The two most important tasks of the wolf pack are defending territory and hunting for food. The alphas of the group are in charge, but they rely on the rest of the pack to pull together for the good of all.
- Without communication, teamwork is impossible. Wolves have their own verbal and nonverbal “languages” that allow them to cooperate and forge close bonds with one another.
- Gray wolves have a large vocabulary of sounds and movements that they use to talk to each other. Howls are used to call members of the pack together, to send signals out to other wolf packs, or to warn outsiders that they are trespassing on guarded territory! Within the group, wolves also use complex combinations of barks and growls to make their points.
- Wolves’ facial expressions, as well as a range of body postures and movements, can say a lot, too. They use body language to display emotion or to show that they know their place in the pack’s hierarchy.
Eat when you can!
- Gray wolves are carnivores. This means that their diet consists mostly of meat. They sometimes eat small animals like beavers, birds, and fish. But often, they manage to kill prey that is significantly larger than they are, like caribou, elk, bison, and musk ox. They are able to take down such large prey thanks to a combination of strategy and stamina. First of all, wolves hunt in packs. So, even a big elk with its slashing antlers and strong, kicking legs, can be overwhelmed when surrounded by several wolves. Secondly, wolves have incredible endurance and can pursue a large animal for hours and hours, wearing it down, until it cannot run anymore. And third, wolves – who are not especially fast, particularly when compared to some of the prey they hunt – have keen senses of hearing and smell. They can figure out where prey is and sneak up on it, getting close enough to launch a surprise attack.
- A wolf eats its fill whenever it can because the next meal could be days away. It might consume 20 pounds (9 kg) of meat at once and then go for 14 days without another bite!
- The alpha male and alpha female of a pack always eat first.
A painful past and an uncertain future
- Gray wolves used to live and thrive all over the North American continent. From coast to coast, their numbers soared. But starting in the late 1800s, a coordinated effort to kill off wolves began in the United States. People considered wolves to be a dangerous nuisance, and farmers in particular suffered losses because of wolf attacks on their livestock. Across the country, people did their best to exterminate the native predators. As a result, gray wolves were almost completely eradicated from the continental United States, with just a few packs surviving in some northern states.
- In the 1970s, the gray wolf was listed as endangered in the U.S. and became protected under law. This made a big difference! And in the years following, wolf populations made a slow but steady come-back.
- The situation has improved but is far from resolved. Conservationists say that the gray wolf is found in less than 20% of its original range.
- But wolves remain controversial. Farmers and hunters say that the predators are nothing but destructive pests. They kill farm animals as well as wild game that hunters would like to claim. On the other hand, environmentalists and others who seek to protect gray wolves say that we should do everything in our power to grow and strengthen the current small populations, so that this iconic native species can thrive once again. They say that gray wolves – like all native species – play a crucial role in maintaining the health of natural ecosystems, by, for example, keeping deer populations from skyrocketing.
- With the current lifting of federal protections for gray wolves, their future looks precarious. Not only may hunting resume, leading to the decimation of the population of gray wolves still trying to get back a foothold in the U.S., but other threats like habitat loss and climate change will continue to take a toll on wolves.
- Over a hundred years after it was being killed without restraint or restriction, and 45 years after regulations were put in place to protect it – with measured success – the gray wolf still is not safe from humans, whose homes, roads, farms, and businesses continue to spread into its habitat. Humans and wolves clash, as species, both trying to protect their own resources. But humans – not wolves – have the power to decide how to move forward: do we kill off what we consider to be a competing species or do we figure out how to protect, respect, and live with that species?
Sources: Rott, Nathan, npr.org, “Gray Wolves to be Removed from Endangered Species List,” https://www.npr.org/2020/10/29/929095979/gray-wolves-to-be-removed-from-endangered-species-list#:~:text=Gray%20wolves%20used%20to%20exist,populations%20to%20local%20wildlife%20agencies.; NYTimes Opinion, The New York Times, “An Inside Job at the Interior,” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/opinion/david-bernhardt-interior.html; naturemappingfoundation.org, “Gray Wolf,” http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/facts/gray_wolf_712.html; earthjustice.org; “The Fight for Northern Rocky Gray Wolves,” https://earthjustice.org/features/campaigns/wolves-in-danger-timeline-milestones; Peterson, Christine, nationageographic.com, “Gray wolves taken off U.S. endangered species list in controversial move,” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/10/gray-wolves-taken-off-endangered-species-list-in-controversial-move/; onekindplanet.org, “Amazing Facts about the Grey Wolf,” https://onekindplanet.org/animal/wolf-grey/