Wolves in New England

Reproduction: (38)

• Maturity​: 1-2 years

• Mating Season: February - March

• Litters: 4-6 pups

• Development: Pups remain in dens for six weeks, and are able to travel longer distances after 5 -6 months.

Diet: (29,38)

• Wolves eat 15-20 deer per year.

• Wolves eat a variety of prey, consisting mostly of ungulates, such as:​ (1,2)

  • White-Tailed Deer​​​

  • Elk

  • Bison

  • Moose

  • Beaver

  • Hare

  • Caribou

Behavior (29,38)

• Wolves are highly social animals that form packs of  5-10 individuals.

• Packs consist of one alpha mated pair, their offspring and a few other non-breeding adults that assist in the care of the pups.​

• Wolves hunt in highly organzied packs that work together to bring down large prey, such as moose and elk.

Territories (38)

• Wolves can cover 30 miles a day, and maintian overall territories of 50 to 1,000 square miles.

• Wolves can roam over 600 miles in search of their own home territories, but typically only disperse 60-70 miles.

• Keystone Apex Predators: (20,38)

Wolves are keystone species, meaning that they have a disproportionate impact on their ecosystems compared to their body mass. This is because wolves are apex predators or are at the "top of the food-chain". In other words, wolves don't have any natural predators, and are largely responsible for limiting the populations of their prey. 

• Non-lethal Effects (Predation Risk): (24)

The presence of wolves can change the behaviors of their prey populations, in that prey may avoid areas that wolves frequent, spend less time in one place, and seek areas where they can see danger coming, so as to lower thier predation risk.

• Indirect Impacts:

As keystone apex predators, wolves have a lot of indirect effects on their ecosystems that result from their limiting of prey populations like ungulates. (20,38)Their presence directly and indirectly impacts their prey populations, which in turn, indirectly impacts the species affected by thier prey, such as the plant species the prey graze on, or the competeing herbivores. Wolves can reduce competing mesopredator predator populations, such as coyotes, and increase the presence of competeing herbivores like beavers, which in turn, greatly alter the physical landscape by building dams. (8,29) For more information about the ecological role of wolves, see the consequences section of the Return Page for a description of the trophic cascades caused by wolves in Yellowstone.

• Total Number in:

  • Lower 48 States: over 6,000 individuals  (2019) (37)

  • The U.S. (Alaska included):  13,700 - 17,200  individuals

  • ​Alaska (not protected by ESA): 7,700 to 11,200 individuals (36)

  • Western Great Lakes States (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin): 3,765  individuals (2016) (36)

  • Northern Rocky Mountains (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming): 1,782 individuals (2014) (36)

  • Washington state : 20 individuals (2014) (36)

  • Southwest Recovery Area (New Mexico and Arizona): 113 individuals (2016) (36)

• Succesful Canadian Populations: (37)

  • Western - 15,000 individuals

  • Eastern - 12,000-14,000 total individuals

Intial Listing:

• Wolves were protected under the ESA in 1973 as a result of their low population numbers after decades of persecution. Prior to that they were covered by the Endangered Species Preservation Act and the ESA of 1969 (not the modern ESA). (12)

Recovery:

• Wolf recovery has been managed on a regional basis with all populations (except for one in northern Minnesota) listed as endangered.(12,32,34)

• The regions of  focus included are: theWestern Great Lakes Region, the Northern Rocky Mountains Region, and the Southwestern Region.(12,32,34)

Plan to Delist Gray Wolves:

• In 2003, aside from the red wolf and Mexican gray wolf populations, the USFWS considered gray wolf populations to be "sufficiently well-recovered" to the point where they recommended de-listing them from the ESA and returning management of wolf populations to the state level. This move would also mean that the gray wolf would lose the ESA protections on private land, and as a result, it has sparked alot of controversy among the public, scientists and conservationists. (12,37)

What is "Sufficiently Recovered?"

• The USFWS considers gray wolf populations to be"sufficiently recovered" in the U.S., which they explain here:​

​"The ESA does not require wolves to be present throughout all of its former range, or for populations to be at historic levels for delisting to occur. The measure under the ESA is whether wolves are in danger of extinction or at risk of becoming so in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. By any scientific measure, gray wolves no longer meet the ESA’s standard for protection and so should be delisted. " (37)

Issues with Species:

• The 2003 delisting proposal failed because it was based on the idea that the eastern timber wolf was a seperate species, but new evidence has come to light that suggests that  it may actually be a sub-species of gray wolf, which complicates the gray wolf's ESA as the eastern timber wolf has not "recovered" in the U.S. (40)

Potential Delisting:

• A second propsal by the USFWS to de-list the gray wolf was published in 2019, but, it remains to be seen if it will be approved. (33,37)

Impacts of Delisting:

• Delisting the gray wolf would mean that managment of wolf populations would be handled by state governments rather than the federal government. It also means that any roaming wolf found in a state without wolf populations or regulations will hae no protection. (12,37)

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