Highlights from the 'State of the Wolf' Report

The Defenders of Wildlife is a conservation organization that has been an integral part of the ongoing effort to reestablish wild populations of wolves. In 2004, the Defenders of Wildlife published the State of the Wolf Report which examines the status of both red and gray wolf populations throughout the United States. Here we'll explore some of the findings of that report.

The report begins with an overview of North American wolves and their history:

• The gray wolf (Canis lupus) once roamed large extents of North America: from Mexico to Canada and Alaska, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
• The red wolf (Canis rufus) inhabited the southeastern US and together, the two species numbered around 400,000 before European contact.
• After European contact, populations of ungulates such as bison, elk, and deer—the wolves' main prey species—were decimated by unregulated hunting and human land consumption.
• Wolves then turned to killing livestock and in the early 1900s, a government run predator control program was set up. By 1930, wolves had been eliminated from most of their natural range throughout the United States.
• By the 1970s, persecution of the species left only 1,000 gray wolves in northeastern Minnesota.
• Today, conservation efforts are bringing wolves back to the United States. In the mid 1990s, the US FWS reintroduced gray wolves into central Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.
• Gray wolf numbers are on the rise in Minnesota and there are now populations in Wisconsin and Michigan as well.

The report then examines wolf populations region-by-region throughout the US. At the time the report was published in 2004, the following gray wolf populations exist throughout North America:

• Northern Rockies — 301 wolves in Yellowstone, 368 in Central Idaho, 92 in Northwest Montana
• Pacific Northwest — population unknown
• Southwest US and Mexico — about 50 wolves
• Southern Rockies — population unknown
• Great Lakes — 360 wolves in Michigan, 2,450 in Minnesota, about 400 in Wisconsin
• Northeast — none at the time of the report
• Alaska — 7,000 to 10,000 wolves

Additionally, a red wolf population exists in North Carolina.

Find out more: State of the Wolf Report (Defenders of Wildlife)

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