Tuesday, April 14, 2009

"Few animals have ever haunted our dreams or fired our imaginations more than the wolf. Unfortunately, by the early part of this century, man had almost exterminated the wolf from the lower 48 states. The recovery of the wolf is becoming an impressive conservation success story and a gift to future generations" (Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior). (3)



Welcome! I hope you find this blog interesting as it will enrich your minds with interesting facts about the grey wolf.


Body length: 100-160cm (1)
Tail length: 30-50cm (1)
Standing height: 50-100cm (1)
Weight: 15-80kg. (1)
Fur color: primarily grey or brown, but can range in color from white to black.
The color of the belly and throat are lighter, and the legs, snout and ears range from light brown to cinnamon.
Also, the male is usually 20 per cent bigger than the female. (1).

Their feet are generally 3 1/2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches long (4).



Gray Wolf (Canis lupus). Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



(Reference 2)









Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Mammalia
Order Carnivora
Suborder Caniformia
Family Canidae
Species Canis lupus (3, 6)
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7 comments:

  1. AlexApril 15, 2009 at 9:47 AM

    where does this wolf usually live??

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  2. Dr. GoetzApril 15, 2009 at 9:48 AM

    I really like the quote you began with. I hope you address some of those issue in future posts.

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  3. StephanieApril 15, 2009 at 9:58 AM

    Thank you and I will. The wolves used to live across much of Eurasia from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, and in North America, their presence extended from the far north to the Sierra Madre in Mexico.
    However today, the grey wolf can only be found in Canada, Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin in the USA, Russia, and parts of East Europe.

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  4. RebekahApril 15, 2009 at 10:08 AM

    This seems like a big animal. What does the diet of a grey wolf consist of?

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  5. Hailey SApril 15, 2009 at 10:13 AM

    I know earlier in the Disappearing Species unit we talked about Yellowstone and the Wolf. (I think it was a grey wolf, correct me if I'm wrong) Was that removal of wolves common? And what about any new programs to reintroduce the species?

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  6. emereApril 16, 2009 at 9:08 AM

    To piggy back on haileys comment, i would like to know if these are the same wolves that were intentionally removed from the wild and if they are now being reintriduced to the wild.

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  7. StephanieApril 16, 2009 at 9:59 AM

    Bekah, i'll be posting that in the next blog so stay tuned! Hailey and Emere, yes it was the grey wolf that we discussed along with the Yellowstone Park. Well it has been discovered that the wolves have lived in the National Park about 960 years ago, but these wolves unfortunately fell prey to many predator elimination programs, and the last wolf present in Yellowstone was shot in 1926. Fortunately, the wolves have been reintroduced into the Yellowstone National Park, and they were first reintroduced in about 1995. I will definitely further discuss this topic in later posts. For now I think you should check out this article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/28/gray.wolves/index.html

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