1. Gray Wolves

2. Idaho Wolves

3. General Physical Characteristics
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) also called the timber wolf, is the largest of about 41 wild species within the dog family, Canidae, of the order Carnivora. They range in size from 26" to 38" shoulder height, 39" to 80" in length (tip of nose to end of tail), and vary in weight from 57 to 130 pounds. Their coats may vary in color from grey to brown, from white to jet black.

4. Characteristics Continued..
Wolves are capable of mating by age two or three; sometimes form lifelong bond.
Wolves can live 13 years and reproduce past 10 years.
Territories range from 50 square miles to more than 1,000 square miles.

5. Characteristics continued
Pups depend on mother's milk for the first month, then weaned and fed regurgitated meat brought by pack members.
By seven to eight months, pups begin traveling with the adults.
After a year or two, wolves may leave and try to find a mate and form a pack.
Lone, dispersing wolves have traveled as far as 600 miles in search of a new home.

6. Wolves travel as far as 30 miles in a day to hunt.
They trot at about 5 miles per hour, but they can run as fast as 40 miles per hour for short distances.

7. Wolf Pack and territory
The number of individuals per pack can be highly variable, but averages four to eight during winter in the western Great Lakes area with records of up to 16.
The average pack size in Idaho is 8.1 animals
Pack size can be as high as 30 or more in parts of Canada and Alaska. A wolf pack will roam and defend a territory of between 42 and 100 square miles in the western Great Lakes area. Territories can reach hundreds of square miles where prey densities are in low density such as in Alaska.
Territories range from 50 square miles to more than 1,000 square miles in Idaho.

8. More on pack structure
Wolf groups, or packs, typically include a breeding pair (the alpha pair), their offspring, and other non-breeding adults (called Betas). The lowest member of the pack is the Omegas. Wolves are capable of mating by age two or three and sometimes form a lifelong bond. Wolves can live 13 years and reproduce past 10 years of age. On the average five pups are born in early spring and are cared for by the entire pack. For the first six weeks, pups are reared in dens. Dens are often used year after year, but wolves may also dig new dens or use some other type of shelter, such as a cave.

9. Pack Behavior
Wolves exhibit visible signs of the strength of their pack behavior through unique body language. You can tell a wolf's rank in the pack simply by looking at how it holds its body. Alpha wolves stand more erect with their tails held higher, while lower-ranking ones slouch toward the ground.

10. Alpha Wolf

11. Dominance

13. Territorial wolves
Wolf packs live within territories, which they defend from other wolves (and domestic dogs). Their territories range in size from 50 square miles to more than 1,000 square miles, depending on the available prey and seasonal prey movements.

14. Yearly Comparison

15. Range
Second only to humans in adapting to climate extremes, gray wolves once ranged from coast to coast and from Alaska to Mexico in North America. They were absent from the East and the Southeast, which were occupied by red wolves (Canis rufus), and from the large deserts in the southwestern States. By the early 20th century, government-sponsored predator control programs and declines in prey brought gray wolves to near extinction in the lower 48 States.

16. Does not include Yellowstone reintroductions

17. The Hunt
Wolves primarily hunt old, weak and sick animals in a herd—not the large, healthy animals—which is good for the overall health of elk herds and other game.
If the population of wolves get dense, wolves will resort to easier prey such as livestock.

18. How they hunt
Not all wolves hunt in packs, but the most successful animals do.
They sneak as close to the herd as possible trying to implement surprise.
They will then sprint at the herd trying to single out a slower, or weaker animal.
In the winter time they use the deep snow to their advantage.

19. Wolf Hunting

20. Hunting The wolves will take the animals down by several methods.
One of the most common methods is hamstringing the animals. They attack the hind quarters of the animal until it can no longer run. If they attack the flanks they will continue to bite the animal until it is driven into shock.

21. Minnesota wolf hunt

25. Past Population
More than 200,000 gray wolves (Canis lupus) once lived throughout the United States. Aggressive, wildlife-killing campaigns led to wolf eradication and the disappearance of most of the elk, deer, and antelope from much of the country by the mid-1930s. For nearly 50 years, wolves were all but extinct in the lower 48 states.

26. Populations dropping????
Once abundant throughout North America wolves have, over the past 200 years, felt a constant impact of the Human Population. Even today, their number continues suffer as they are forced into smaller and smaller habitat; even though reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has been better than expected.

27. Idaho Population
The 2014 population of Idaho wolves is about 770 wolves. The population grew exponentially initially during the first 15 years or so but growth has begun to slow, why?

28. 2012 data Estimated 683 wolves 35 breeding pairs (approximate)
117 documented packs
66 produced litters
187 pups produced (4.6 avg)
425 mortalities- 98% human caused

29. 2013 Data Most recent population numbers reveal 659 wolves
473 mortalities
99% human caused
109 documented packs
49 reproduced
166 minimum pups produced

30. Wolf Population Trends

31. Idaho Wolf distribution
Wolves are found from the Canadian border to near Interstate 84 in southern Idaho, with most in the national forests of the central part of the state.
Most of this year's population growth has been in the Panhandle; the population south of Interstate 90 has increased only slightly.

32. Opposing sides
Wolves advocates want you to believe the animals kill prey fairly peacefully and quickly. Though this is true sometimes, other times it can be quite gruesome and drawn out.
Wolf opponents want you to believe they are blood thirsty killers who kill for the shear joy of it.
The Truth – Somewhere in between both sides.

33. The howl…. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/howl.html
Wolves use their distinctive howl to communicate. Biologists have identified a few of the reasons that wolves howl. First, they like to howl. They also howl to reinforce social bonds within the pack, to announce the beginning or end of a hunt, sound an alarm, locate members of the pack, and warn other wolves to stay out of their territory. Wolves howl more frequently in the evening and early morning, especially during winter breeding and pup-rearing. It has been narrowed to 4 different types of howls

34. Their history…
Settlers moving westward depleted most populations of bison, deer, elk, and moose – animals that were important prey for wolves. Wolves then increasingly turned to sheep and cattle as a replacement for their natural prey. To protect livestock, ranchers and government agencies began an eradication campaign. Bounty programs initiated in the 19th century continued as late as 1965, offering $20 to $50 per wolf. Wolves were trapped, shot, dug from their dens, and hunted with dogs. Poisoned animal carcasses were left out for wolves, a practice that also killed eagles, ravens, foxes, bears, and other animals that fed on the tainted carrion.

35. Bounties and hunts existed in the lower 48 until approximately 1975, when they were listed as endangered in the lower 48.

37. Recovery
The wolf’s comeback nationwide is due to its listing under the Endangered Species Act, resulting in increased scientific research and protection from unregulated killing, along with reintroduction and management programs and education efforts that increased public understanding of wolf biology and behavior. Wolf recovery has been so successful that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has removed the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes area from the threatened and endangered species list. Today about 3,020 wolves live in the wild in Minnesota, 30 on Lake Superior’s Isle Royale, about 434 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and at least 465 in Wisconsin.

39. Continued…
In the northern Rocky Mountains, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park and U.S. Forest Service lands in central Idaho in 1995 and The reintroduction was successful, and the recovery goals for this population have been exceeded. By December 2006 there were about 1,100 wolves in the Yellowstone area and Idaho; in total, at least 1,240 live in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Wolf recovery has been so successful that the Service has removed the gray wolf from the endangered species list. To date the area supports over 2,000 wolves.

40. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) established 3 recovery areas (Northwest Montana, Central Idaho, and the Greater Yellowstone Area) to recover endangered gray wolf (Canis lupus) populations across the northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming (Figure 1). Thirty-five wolves were released in central Idaho and 31 wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park during winters of 1995 and 1996 as part of the USFWS’s recovery effort.

41. Wolf Population Growth

42. Wolf attacks
There is some concern that wolf recovery may pose a threat to human safety. However, wolf attacks on humans are extremely rare in North America, even in Canada and Alaska where there are consistently large wolf populations. Most documented attacks have been in areas where wolves habituated to people when they were fed by people or attracted to garbage.

43. 29 known attacks in North America(3 fatalities), only one from wolves who were not fed by people.
Factors predisposing wolves to attack people were identified as:
Rabies - the main factor.
Habituation - when wolves lose their fear of humans and approach too close.
Highly modified environments - this includes few natural wolf prey, human poverty and large numbers of unattended small children, characteristic of pre-20th century Europe and India today (see below).
Provocation - when humans molest or try to kill wolves.

44. The Controversy
Initially it had to do with reintroduction, now it mostly has to do with how to manage our wolves.
There is no doubt that the wolf population is healthy enough to be hunted.
They also are affecting elk and deer herds in selected locations.
They have preyed on livestock.

45. Total losses of Livestock in Idaho