European wolves, like most all others, live and hunt in packs which are extended families of an alpha (the dominant male), his mate, and their offspring. They usually stay within a home range, but may wander far outside their territory to hunt. They hunt and kill game up to 10 times heavier than their own weight. Wild reindeer, elk, and red deer are their favorite prey. European wolves will also eat much smaller animals such as mice and frogs. Because of the decline in the number of wild game, they have begun to prey on domestic horses, cattle, and dogs. Starving wolves will even eat potatoes, fruits, buds, and lichen.The alpha male and female mate between January and March. The cubs are born seven weeks later in a den dug among bushes or rocks. The male brings food back to the den, either by carrying it whole or by swallowing and then regurgitating it for the others to eat. As the cubs grow, the mother and other members of the pack help to feed them.

Few European countries still have substantial numbers of wolves. Wild wolves are hard to count, so exact numbers are not known. Sometimes radio-tracking is used to determine their numbers. European wolves have managed to survive only in the most remote, mountainous, or densely forested regions. Areas in which these wolves can live without coming into conflict with humans are decreasing. There is little effective international agreement about the wolf’s conservation. All efforts to preserve the wolf are conducted locally.

Because of the increasing shortage of natural prey in Italy, wolves have been forced to give up their pack-hunting habits, and scavenge for food around villages and farmhouses. Roughly, about 250 wolves live in remote mountainous areas in Italy, and are officially protected. Projects which are financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature may enable small numbers of wolves to survive if farmers and herdsman can be persuaded to accept them. Many rural villages have open dumps where the local slaughterhouse disposes of its waste. Many wolves feed there alongside feral or stray dogs. These dogs and wolves will occasionally mate, and their offspring are often impossible to distinguish from ordinary dogs.

The wolf-dog’s (Right) deceptive appearance makes it all that more dangerous. Wolf-dogs may wander freely through populated areas, unrecognized as wolves. They are wilder than their feral parents. They can be extremely ferocious, and are often infected with rabies.

In Norway, Wolves are protected to the extent that they are illegal to kill by anyone other than farmers protecting their livestock. To prevent continuous slaughter, farmers are often compensated for livestock which is killed by the endangered wolves.

“Grupo Lobo” was founded in Spain and Portugal in 1985 in attempt to protect the wolves in the mountains on the Spain/Portugal border. There is an extremely small number of wolves in Sweden, regardless of protective legislation. These systems are often abused. Lapp herdsman in the North of Sweden have often blamed the deaths of their reindeer on wolves rather than on poor care.

The “wolf-plague” in Scotland resulted in the extermination of the animal there. The last British wolf died in 1743. Wolves survived in Ireland until about 1773. Similar waves of wolf persecution on the European continent has driven the few survivors into remote areas far away from human settlement.

Although the wolf is a protected species in most European countries, some hunters see no reason to stop killing wolves for sport, and will pay a great deal of money for the privilege. Wolf survival in Europe obviously requires more than simple legislations. These wolves are rather shy and intelligent, yet they are still viewed as a ruthless predator by the mainstream.

The Ethiopian wolf is one of the rarest wolves in the world, second only to the red wolf. It inhabits only a few mountain pockets of the Ethiopian highlands. There is believed to be fewer than 450 alive in the wild. The largest concentration of Ethiopian wolves exist in the Bale Mountains National Park. The people living in the Bale Mountains own on average 2 dogs per household in order to protect their livestock. Although the wolves’ habitat has constantly dwindled as a result of human encroachment, its greatest threat of extinction is a recurring epidemic of rabies which is transmitted from domestic dogs with whom the wolves compete for food.

The Ethiopian wolf has long legs and a long muzzle, resembling the coyote in both shape and size. It has a distinctive reddish coat with a white throat, chest, and underparts, broad pointed ears, and a thick bushy black tail with a white base. It ranges in size from 43 to 55 inches (tip of nose to end of tail) and weighs from 24 to 42 pounds.

By nature, the Ethiopian wolf hunts by day, but it is found to sometimes be nocturnal in areas where it is persecuted. Though they live in packs which share and defend their territories, they almost always hunt alone. Rodents make up over 90% of their diet, but they occasionally feed on small antelopes, hares, and hyraxes.

Breeding season usually occurs between August and November. During breeding season and pregnancy, the female’s coat turns a pale yellowish color and her tail turns brownish and loses hair. The dominant female of the pack gives birth to a litter of 2 to 7 pups between October and January. Full maturity is reached at 2 years.

The only real predators other than humans are spotted hyaenas and tawny eagles that occasionally prey on unattended pups. Life span in the wild is about 8 to 10 years.

The dire wolf became extinct somewhere between 4,000 and 16,000 years ago. This is thought to be partially because of its inability to compete with the faster, more intelligent gray wolf. It is the largest canid known to ever exist. And though it was similar in many ways to the gray wolf, the dire wolf was heavier built, more robust, with shorter and more powerful legs, and a larger head. Dire WolfBeing a heavier animal with shorter legs, the dire wolf would have been slower and less adept at catching prey than the gray wolf. It is, therefore, believed that the dire wolf was more of a scavenger than predator. It would, however, hunt when the opportunity was there. Its teeth were more massive and strong, allowing it to easily consume carcasses. Although its head was larger, the brain case was smaller. A scavenger does not need to outsmart its prey. Also, being larger in size, it would have had less competition.

A fossilized bone was discovered near the Ohio River in Indiana in 1854. However, it wasn’t until years later it was determined that this fossil was of an unknown wolf species. It was named Canis Dirus, the Dire Wolf. Thousands of canis dirus fossils have been recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California where water would be left floating on top of the tar after it rained. When attempting to drink from the pools of water, animals often became trapped in the tar below. The dire wolf and other predators, attempting to feed on the trapped animals, would often become trapped in the tar themselves. Dire Wolf fossils have been found in North, Central, and South America. Their exact range, however, is unknown.

Able to tolerate years of sub-zero temperatures, up to five months of darkness a year, and weeks without food, the arctic wolf lives in one of the few places on earth where it is safe from the greatest threat of all - man. Arctic wolves inhabit some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. In April, the air temperature rarely rises above -22° F. The ground is permanently frozen. The arctic wolf is one of the few mammals that can tolerate these conditions. Details of the animal’s life through much of the year are virtually unknown.

Wolves usually live in small packs or family groups consisting of a breeding pair, their pups, and their unmated offspring from the prior several seasons. Female Feeding Her Young. The dominant, or breeding, pair are known as the alpha male and alpha female. They are respected by the rest of the pack. All adults in the pack cooperate in feeding and caring for the young.

Throughout the Fall and Winter, artic wolves remain on the move. After mating in March, the pregnant female leaves the pack to find a den to give birth to her pups. She may dig a new one. However, if the ground is frozen, she will be forced to return to an old den in a cave or rock cleft. The pups are born deaf, blind, and helpless. They are totally dependent on their mother, and she in turn relies on her mate to bring her the food she needs. After a month, the pups are able to eat meat. From then on, the whole pack shares the job of feeding them with regurgitatied meat from a kill. The pups may stike out on their own the following year.

The arctic wolf preys on lemmings and arctic hare, but its most substantial source of food is musk oxen and caribou. Because of the scarcity of grazing plants, animals must roam a large area in order to find enough food to survive.

They will kill virtually any animal they can catch, and eat every part of it, including skin, fur, and bones. The wolves have up to 800 square miles in which to search for their prey. When Winter temperatures plummet, the wolves may follow migrating caribou South.

The arctic wolves must hunt together in packs when seeking large prey. The caribou or musk oxen are too powerful for any one wolf to take on alone. By the time the pack approches a herd of oxen out in the open, the chance of a surprise attack is long gone; the herd has already formed a defensive circle with the calves in the center. The wolves must then prowl around the herd forcing the oxen to shift their ground to face them. If the wolves are successful, the oxen will scatter. The wolves will then give chase, trying to isolate the young or weak. A musk ox will provide enough food to last the wolves several days.

The shoulder height of the arctic wolf varies from 25 to 31 inches. On average, they are about 3 feet tall from head to toe. Their body length may vary from 3 to 5 feet (nose to tail). Their colors may range from red, gray, white and black. The approximate weight of a full grown male is 175 pounds. In captivity, an arctic wolf can live to be over 17 years. However, the average lifespan in the wild is but 7 years.

Wolves in general have been under threat throughout history. The arctic wolf is the only subspecies still found over the whole of its original range. This is largely because it rarely encounters humans.

Standing approximately 26 inches shoulder height and weighing an average of 40 pounds, the Arabian Wolf is the smallest wolf subspecies, yet, the largest canid in Arabia. They have short greyish-beige hair which becomes much longer and thicker in winter. Their ears are large in comparison to the rest of it’s body (similar to the maned wolf). Their eyes are naturally yellow with black pupils. However, many are found with brown eyes, revealing that somewhere down the line their ancestors have interbred with feral dogs.

Arab WolfIt is endangered in Arabia, and extinct in the United Arab Emerites. Because of a scarcity of food, they are found in packs only during mating season from October to December, or when food is plentiful. It will kill animals up to the size of a goat, but usually feeds on carrion, small birds, rodents, reptiles and insects. It also eats fruits and plants when meat is scarce. They dig burrows in the sand to protect themselves from the sun, and hunt mainly at night.

The only time that Arabian wolves are known to be territorial is when their pups are born. The litter size can be as large as 12, but is usually only 2 or 3. They are blind at birth and weaned at about eight weeks when the parents start regurgitating food for them.