The Mysterious Wolf-Cont'd

Mai-coh is the Navajo word for the wolf that means witch. Navajos believed if a person wearing a wolf skild would become a werewolf.

The bounty for the wolf was not abolished until 1972 in Ontario. Between 1883 and 1918, more than 80,000 wolves were killed by bounty hunters.

By the 1900, the wolf was extinct in Europe due to the European war on wolves. By 1772, the wolf became extinct in Denmark. The wolf became extinct in Ireland by 1821. By 1847, the wolves became extinct in Bavaria. By the 1870's, the wolf was rarely seen in Eastern Canada. In 1880, the wolf became extinct in New Brunswick; 1900 in Nova Scotia, and 1913 in Newfoundland.

The best-known wolf-attack was a 1942 in which an Ontario man using a line car on a remote railway line was charged by a wolf. The unusual and erratic behaavior of the wolf strongly suggests that the wolf had rabies, but in any case, the man was not even stratched (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 111).

In 1996, a 24-year old female worker at a private wildlife sanctuary near Haliburton, Ontario, was attacked and killed by 5 wolves when she triped and fell in their enclosure. The unusual incident represents the only documented death of a human due to wolves in all North America.

Large scale kills by humans assume that wolves are the primary limiting factor to a hoofed game p;opulation. The wolf is just a convenient and visible scapegoat, the final product of years of prejudice (Busch, Wolf Almanac. 113).

Humans are often the major factor in wolf declines by overhunting them.

The Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division recommends the following animal husbandry practices in wolf habitat (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 119):

1. cattlemen should check their herds regularly.
2. only healthy and non-pregnant cows should be sent to pasture.
3. livestock should be removed from pasture as early as possible in the fall.
4. carrion should be buried or removed as soon as possible. (In one Minnesota study by the U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service 63% of 111 farmers surveyed either left dead livestock in place or just dragged it to the edge of the woods).
5. grazing leases on remote public lands should be phased out.
6. ranchers should keep animals out of a remote pastures after dusk and pen them in corrals where they can be watched.

Leghold devices are used in 3 main types of traps (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 123):

1. A blind set, in which a trap is placed on a wolf tail and covered with dirt.
2. A bait set, in which is baited with or placed near a bait. Bait sets are often placed near fresh wolf kills.
3. A scent set, in which a placed by a rock or bush on which a homemade scent mix is painted. One early recipe consisted of mixing eight coyote or wolf glands, one quarter liver with gall, one kidney, and wolf dung. This appetizing blend was then allowed to stand in a warm place until well rotted. It was then poured over a wolf trap, and was reported to be irresistible to wolves.

With CITES statistics, wolf pelts are the most traded of all wolf parts (Busch, Almanac, 125).

Three main purposes of moder zoos (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 137):

1. To aid in educating people about other forms of life.
2. To act as a research center for species which are difficult to observe in the wild.
3. To serve as a sanctuary and breeding center for threatened species.

Wolf Parks (Wolf Almanac, Busch 145-158):

1. Wolf Haven International
2. Julian Center for Science and Education
3. Wolf Hollow
4. Wolf Park
5. Wild Canid Survival and Research Center (WCSRC)
6. Leo Loups de Ge'vaudan (France)

In 1984, the Mexican wolf recovery team released its recommendations for the site selection for reintroductio (Wolf Almanac, 172-173, Busch):

1. within the historic rage of the Mexican wolf, defined as Canis lupus, baileyi, C.l. mogollomensis, and C.l. monstrabilis.
2. minimum elevations of 4,000 geet above sea level as most of the wolf's prey live in the high pinon-juniper forests.
3. a human population density less than 12 per square mile.
4. sufficient prey for releases wolves and their first-generation progeny.
5. no proposals for development or habitat destruction that would significantly harm wolf-habitat.
6. no endangered or threatened prey populations that would be affected negatively by wolves.
7. free water available in secluded areas of habitat.
8. mostly broken mountains terrain.

To ensure a viable wolf population within Minnesota and to stimulate new populations in the easern U.S. outside Minnesota, the plan adopted 6 steps (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 177-178):

1. Increase public education programs on wolf restoration.
2. Monitor wolf populations, habitat, and prey.
3. Maintain suitable habits and preconditions.
4. Provide law enforcment activities.
5. Minimize losses of domestic livestock due to wolf predation.
6. Evaluate the need and feasibility of reintroducing wolves.

The recovery plan has selected five sites for potential wolf reintroduction (Busch, Wolf Almanac, 178-178):

1. Eastern Maine, where about 2,5000 square miles of unihabited land remains.
2. NW Maine and the adjacent portions of New Hampshire, where 11,3000 square miles of sparsely populated lad exists, much of it private.
3. The Adirondack Forest Preserve Area of nothern NY with about 9,300 square miles of wild lands. (However, this block has been downplayed by some biologists since it lies within easy driving distance of over twenty million people.)
4. The upper peninsula f MIchigan, with about 15,000 square miles of potential wolf habitat, and a small current wolf population already established.
5. Northern Wisconsin, which also has a small current wolf population and may have sufficient habitat for additional wolves.

Potential reintroduction areas for Eastern Timber Wolf (Wolf Almanac, 178, Busch):

1. Eastern Maine
2. Nothwestern Maine and portion of New Hampshire
3. Adirondack Forest Preserve
4. Michigan peninsula
5. Northwestern Wisconsin (after USFWS, 1992)

The Eastern Timber Wolf Recovery Plan aims to ensure the perpetuation of wolves at the following levels in the 5 wolf-management zones in Minnesota (Wolf Almanac, 178, Busch):

1. Zone 1: a naturally fluctuating population
2. Zones 2 & 3: 1 wolf per 10 square miles
3. Zone 4: 1 wolf per 50 square miles
4. Zone 5: no wolves

Countries who are signees to CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) has to agree to certain conditions regarding the issuance of trade permits. The conditions are (Wolf Almanac, 197, Busch):

1. Appendix I: Species are very rare or endangered.
2. Appendix II: Species are are rare or endangered but may become so if trade is not regulated.
3. Appendix III: Species are not deemed to be rare or endangered but may become so by an export permit issued by the government of the exporting country before export is allowed.

The World WIldlife Fund (WWF) Canada has a 7 step strategy of action that serves everywhere (Wolf Almanac, 203, Busch):

1. Determine population conversation goals.
2. Establish Carnivore Conversation Areas.
3. Control killing by humans.
4. Manage impacts on habitat.
5. Broaden public education.
6. Strengthen conservation research.
7. Improve cooperation between provincial, federal and international agencies.

Wild wolves are repopulation in former wolf country that wears collars that beep that tell biologist where they are located. Wolf country, in Minnesota, is now the upper half of the state and expanding (Return of the Wolf, 9 & 13, Grooms).Some wolves are reinhabiting in old wolf haunts that are whacked by the wheels of passing cars. Most of the wolves breed, but some of their pups get a disease, no known cure, and die. Some of the wolvesx are being shot by people who mistake wolves for coyotes, and people who hate the government for the outside forces threatening their way of life (Return of the Wolf, 14, Grooms). My belief is that people need to get educated about wolves before taking the initiative to kill them.

Estimates of the wolf population in the lower 48 states range from 3,000-3,400, while an additional 6,000-9,000 wolves can be found throught Alaska. Over 2,500 wolves live in Minnesota, where they have been classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Approximately 55,000 wolves roam Canada's vast countryside with some natural expansion across the border into northwestern Montana.

Wolves pay a high price for people killing them. The wolf is one of the toughest, smartest, and most flexible species on earth. Wolves have declined through no weakness of their own, but they have been subjected to centuries of fercocious persecution by humans (Return of the Wolf, 15 & 19, Grooms). A wolf can sleep in minus 50 degree weather when the wolf wraps itself in a ball and tucks its nose in the insulating tuff. Wolves learn from observing another wolf.

The red wolf of the southwestern US is the oldest and most primitive of all wolves (Return of the Wolves, 37, Grooms).

Two facts explain why wolves doen't attack people (Return of the Wolf, 58, Grooms):

1. Wolves have learned from bitter experience that humans are the most deadly animal on earth.
2. People don't present the cues that trigger wolves to attack ungulates, hoofed like animals.

Isle Royale, which is located on Lake Superior, is managed as a wilderness-style national park. Isle Royale is the most thoroughly studied predator-prey relationship in the worled between the wolf and the moose (Return of the Wolf, 131, Grooms). The wolf population is in serioius trouble due to the abundance of moose on Isle Royale.

By 2005, the team who helps wolf recovery estimates the eastern timber wolf will be delisted. The original wolf of the Northern Rockies might have been the mubilies wolf of the Great Plains, the larger occidentalis wolf of Canada, or possibly another subspecies now extinct. After all the legal and political fighting, the actual process of restoration in the Rockies went amazingly well (Return of the Wolf 137 & 143, Grooms).

Wolves were imported to Yellowstone National Park then being recolonized (Return of the Wolf, 144, Grooms).

The lobo wolf is the most endangered wolf in North America. The major area for the Mexican Wolf restoration in a section of land straddling the ARizona-New Mexico border called the BLue Range area, although the White Sands Missile Range is till being considered (Return of the Wolf, 151-152, Grooms). The Mexican Wolf is also known as the lobo. The lobo is the smallest gray wolf in America. ASlso, the lobo is different from northern wolves by their shorter coats and pointed ears, and a ruddy pelage color. The lobo looks like a coyote than a gray wolf. They look alike in size and conformation (Return of the Wolf\, 153, Grooms). The Mexican Wolf is a distinct subspecies of the gray wolf by the unique pattern in their DNA. In 1976, the Mexican wolf was listed on the Endangered Species list.

The Alaskan wolves are known asw Canis lupus occidentalis or the Mackenzie gray wolf. They are the largest race in the world.

The wolf's prospects are brighter now then they were a decade ago, but the battle for wolf restoration hasn't been won. The renewal of the ESA is critical, but nothing is more important to the wolf's future than public education (Return of the Wolf, 179 & 182, Grooms). To make good management decisions, people need to shove aside prejudice and confront verifiable fact, which isn't often done. When our society has learned to live with wolves, we can begin to like ourselves a litter better (Return of the Wolves, 184 & 186, Grooms).

The wolf may have developed from miacids which are primitive carnivores. The direct descendants of miacids are animals called viverrids which include the genet of Africa. Tomarctus is an ancestor of the wolf that had a fifth toe on its hind leg. Canis lupus, the frist gray wolf, was in Eurasia sometime in the Pleistocene period. Canis dirus, the dire wolf, involved earlier (The Wolf Almanac, 1, Busch).

The dog is reclassified as a new subspecies of wolf by the name of Canis lupus familiaris (The Wolf Almanac, 2, Busch).

Canis rufus is the red wolf. The wolf lives in the southeast corner in the US. The red wolf is not a separate species (The Wolf Almanac, 10, Busch). Bye 1930, the Canis rufus floridanus was extinct. By 1970, the Canis rufus rufus was enticnt. By 1980, Canis rufus gregoryi was extinct in the wild.

Canis simensis is also known as the Abyssinian wolf. This wolf lives in the highliands of Ethiopia. The Abyssinian jackal and wolf, simien jackal, red jackal, simien fox, and the Ethiopian wolf are alternate names of the Canis simensis. For the survival of the species, the local farmers of Ethiopia are the main threat of their survival. The farmers destroy their begetation. Other threats are loss of habitat, hybridization with domestic dogs, and diseases spread by dogs to the survival of Abyssinian wolf (The Wolf Alamanc, 11, Busch).

Brush wolf, prairie wolf, medicine wolf, and little wolf are all common names for the coyote (Canis latran). Falsely labeled wolves are the aardwolf (Prosteles cristatus), maned wolf (Chysocyon brachyurus), Tasmanina wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus), and Andean wolf (Dasycyon hagenbecki) (The Wolf Almanac, 10, Busch).

The gray wolf has many common names. The common names are timber wolf, arctic wolf, buffalo wolf, runner, and the Mackenzie wolf. The largest member of the canid family is the gray wolf.

Wolf scat is similar but different of a large domestic dog. Wolves are permitted to more diseases than domestic dogs. Mange and tapeworms are a curse to the wolves.

Reacting to the growing interest in wolves, an increasing number of zoos worldwide are featuring new or expanded wolf exhibits. Similarly, guest ranches are meeting their patrons' requests to observe wolves in their natural environment. In North America, most of the wolf population includes "gray wolves." Their fur, however, comes in many different shades, including tan, brown, black, and white.

In North America, the five subpsecies of the gray wolf include the Rocky Mountain or Mackenzie Valley wolf, the eastern timber wolf, the Mexican or lobo wolf, the Great plains or buffalo wolf, and the arctic or white wolf. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and MIchigan are inhabited primarliy by Great Plains wolves. A second species, the red wolf, resides in the southeastern United States.

The wolf was the only species native to Yellowstone National Park that was not present when the park was established in 1872, primarily because wolves had been hunted there. Currently, between six and eight gray wolf packs appear to raised in Yellowstone, where they were the first reintroduced in 1995 and are now protected and controlled by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wolves do not hibernate, their fur lets them stay warm even in winter's coldest months. These year-round hunters act as a natural control agent for certain problems with animal disease and over-population. Growing evidence suggests that the reintroduction and appropriate of wolves can prove beneficial to the balance of nature for years to come.