Wolf

The wolf (Canis lupus), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, and gray wolves, as colloquially understood, comprise non-domestic/feral subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae, males averaging 40 kg (88 lb) and females 37 kg (82 lb). Wolves measure 105–160 cm (41–63 in) in length and 80–85 cm (31–33 in) at shoulder height. The wolf is also distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The banded fur of a wolf is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.

In the contiguous United States, wolf declines were caused by the expansion of agriculture, the decimation of the wolf's main prey species like the American bison, and extermination campaigns. Wolves were given protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, and have since returned to parts of their former range thanks to both natural recolonizations and reintroductions in Yellowstone National Park and Idaho. The repopulation of wolves in Midwestern United States has been concentrated in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan where wolves number over 4,000 as of 2018. Wolves also occupy much of the northern Rocky Mountains region, with at least 1,704 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as of 2015. They have also established populations in Washington and Oregon.

In the Pawnee creation myth, the wolf was the first animal brought to Earth. When humans killed it, they were punished with death, destruction and the loss of immortality. For the Pawnee, Sirius is the "wolf star" and its disappearance and reappearance signified the wolf moving to and from the spirit world. Both Pawnee and Blackfoot call the Milky Way the "wolf trail". The wolf is also an important crest symbol for clans of the Pacific Northwest like the Kwakwakaʼwakw.

Grey wolves


Common Name: gray wolf, northwestern wolf, Rocky Mountain wolf
Latin Name: Canis lupus
Location: eastern Washington

By the early 1900s, after years of trapping, poisoning campaigns and government-sponsored bounties, wolves were eradicated from the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The last confirmed Washington wolves were killed in the rainforest valleys of the western Olympia Peninsula in the 1930s. Wolf sightings were still occasionally reported from far northeast Washington’s Selkirk Mountains, near the Canadian border around Ross Lake in North Cascades National Park and in the area of the Pasayten Wilderness.

After nearly being eradicated in the early 1900s, the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a native Washington species, has naturally returned to the state.The first to return to Washington came on their own from existing packs in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and British Columbia. Although there have been no federal or state efforts to proactively reintroduce wolves to Washington, they have successfully repopulated parts of eastern Washington and the North Cascades.

In the 1990s and early 2000s wolves started coming back naturally to Washington from “coastal” gray wolf populations in British Columbia and “continental” gray wolf populations in Idaho and western Montana.

The first pack with pups was confirmed in Washington in July 2008 in western Okanogan and northern Chelan counties. It represented the first fully documented breeding by wolves in the state since the 1930s. Since then, the state’s wolf population has increased at an average rate of 28 percent each year since wolf population surveys began.Wolves were designated a state endangered species in 1980. Each year Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) provides information on the recovery of the wolf population in Washington, including the status, distribution, and management of wolves, in an annual report.One important measure in this report is the number of breeding pairs and confirmed wolf packs in the state. Packs and breeding pairs create the population structure that ensures wolves will be best be able to survive. It is also an indicator of continuing population growth. Additionally, individual dispersing wolves are more likely to break off from growing packs and travel to establish new territories in quality habitat areas.

As of April 2020, there are 145 Wolves in the state of Washington. The wolves in Western Washington are currently under federal protection. In March 2019, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule to delist the gray wolf in all remaining areas of the United States except for the range of the Mexican gray wolf in Arizona and New Mexico.

Red wolves


Red wolves were originally distributed throughout the southeastern and south-central United States from the Atlantic Ocean to central Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Illinois in the west, and in the north from the Ohio River Valley, northern Pennsylvania, southern New York, and extreme southern Ontario in Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. The red wolf was nearly driven to extinction by the mid-1900s due to aggressive predator-control programs, habitat destruction, and extensive hybridization with coyotes. By the late 1960s, it occurred in small numbers in the Gulf Coast of western Louisiana and eastern Texas.

Fourteen of these survivors were selected to be the founders of a captive-bred population, which was established in the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium between 1974 and 1980. After a successful experimental relocation to Bulls Island off the coast of South Carolina in 1978, the red wolf was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 to proceed with restoration efforts. In 1987, the captive animals were released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina, with a second release, since reversed[clarification needed], taking place two years later in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Of 63 red wolves released from 1987–1994, the population rose to as many as 100–120 individuals in 2012, but due to the lack of regulation enforcement by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the population has declined to 40 individuals in 2018[15] and about 14 as of 2019.


Washington’s wolves were driven to extinction in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. With protection from the Endangered Species Act, however, the animals began to return from neighboring Idaho and British Columbia in the early 2000s.

More Than 200 Wolves Reported in Washington in 2021

OLYMPIA, Wash.— The official Washington wolf population numbers released today show a statewide total of 206 wolves in 33 packs, with 19 successful breeding pairs. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife documented 30 wolves killed by people in 2021, up from 16 last year.

The data shows that two wolves were killed by the wildlife department itself, 22 were legally hunted by Tribal members and four were struck by vehicles. Two wolf deaths are still under investigation. Although Washington state law protects gray wolves as an endangered species, the wildlife department has killed 35 wolves over the past nine years, with most of the killings occurring on public lands.

“It’s heartening to see our wolf population increasing but with people still killing so many wolves we shouldn’t be celebrating,” said Sophia Ressler, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolves are still recovering in Washington and need to be protected, not killed, by the state.”

Unlike previous reports, the wolf population data released today includes wolves counted by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Population data from 2019 and 2020 did not include the tribal numbers because no formal count of those wolves was conducted. As a result, the growth of the wolf population in 2021 cannot be determined through comparison to the reported wolf population from the two previous years.

Following the state’s killing of the Wedge pack in August 2020, Gov. Jay Inslee directed the agency to draft new rules requiring the use of nonlethal solutions prior to killing wolves. In a win for conservationists, the governor’s mandate reversed the state Fish and Wildlife Commission’s denial of a petition filed by the Center and conservation allies.

Inslee requested the rules be enacted by the 2021 grazing season, but the department failed to meet that deadline and now predicts rules will be in place by January 2023.

Washington’s ongoing wolf recovery was initially driven by wolves moving into the state from Idaho and British Columbia. But wolves in Idaho and Montana — another dispersal source for Washington — are facing an onslaught of newly enacted legislation and regulations designed to greatly expand the killing of wolves.

The new laws in Idaho and Montana are predicted to wipe out a large portion of their wolf populations — up to 90% in Idaho and 85% in Montana. The laws expand hunting seasons, allow for methods such as baiting and strangulation snares, and even permit hunters to run over wolves with snowmobiles.

Department staff have told members of Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission that they should not rely on wolves dispersing into the state from outside its borders to ensure population recovery.

The department and commission are currently undergoing a rulemaking process that will develop the regulations requested by the governor. They will regulate when the agency is allowed to kill wolves for conflict with livestock and establish requirements for nonlethal deterrence before taxpayer money is used to kill wolves.

“Thankfully Washington isn’t making the lethal mistakes that we’re seeing in the Northern Rockies,” said Ressler. “With the unbridled wolf slaughter occurring just east of us, the need for strong rules that work to lessen conflict is more vital now than ever.”


The gray wolf (Canis lupus), a native Washington species, was nearly eradicated from the state in the early 1900s. Wolves are returning to Washington on their own, dispersing from populations in nearby states and provinces—wolves were never reintroduced to Washington.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is managing this recovering endangered species, guided by a citizen-developed plan to address conflicts with livestock and impacts to other wildlife species. Citizen reports of wolf activity and problems are encouraged as WDFW staff members monitor the growth of Washington’s wolves.

WDFW produces an annual report documenting the status, distribution, and management of wolves in the state of Washington over the previous year. You can also watch a video of the 2021 Annual Wolf Report report being presented to the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

WDFW biologists conduct an annual wolf population survey to obtain a minimum count of wolves in the state. That task is a daunting effort that currently employs a variety of tools, including radio collars, helicopters, and dart guns, but might eventually move to noninvasive—and safer—approaches, such as using trail cameras and AudioMoths (recording devices that enable researchers to listen for wolf howls).


1. Wolves are just another animal on the landscape — neither all good nor all bad
Wolves are an important part of the ecosystem, intelligent, and curious. These traits make them charismatic and interesting to the public. However, they are also carnivores, and come with the stigma sometimes associated with animals that survive by eating other animals that humans use for food, such as deer, elk, and occasionally livestock. Wolves don’t know they are controversial, and like all other animals, including people, they try to survive however they can.

Sometimes wolves attack livestock, but this is a relatively rare occurrence in Washington. Most of the wolf packs in Washington state — about 85 percent — haven’t done this and typically survive on elk, deer, and moose.

Wolf attacks on people in North America are virtually unheard of, with a few rare exceptions such as one in Banff in Alberta, Canada in 2019 that involved a sick wolf and one in Port Edward, British Columbia in late May 2020. There has not been a confirmed wolf attack on a human in the lower 48 states since at least 1900.

2. Wolves in Washington are considered endangered, but populations are returning
Wolves were eliminated from the state by the 1930s by livestock interests and government eradication programs. However, as decades progressed, values of the citizens of Washington has changed and wildlife managers began to better realize the value of large carnivores as parts of intact and healthy ecosystems.

Under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, wolves were able to start repopulating Washington, expanding their range from states and provinces like Idaho, Oregon and Canada. Reports of wolves started to occur in the 1990s and early 2000’s. The first pack to re-establish was documented in North Central Washington in 2008.

It isn’t possible to count every wolf, as they are elusive animals, but at the end of 2019, there were at least 145 wolves living in 26 packs in our state. That number will shift throughout the year as pups are born in April or May and some wolves disperse or die. The population number is a minimum count and the actual number of wolves is likely higher.

3. Not all gray wolves are gray
The species of wolves found in Washington are gray wolves (Canis lupus), the same species that existed in the state prior to their eradication in the 1930s.

· Gray wolves measure up to 6 feet in length, including the tail, and are about 30 inches tall at the shoulder.

· Female wolves weigh around 70 to 80 pounds, and males 95 to 110 pounds.

· Although only 40 to 60% of wolf pups make it to maturity, the average life span of Washington wolves is generally six to eight years.

Gray wolves range in color from black to white to brown, and all colors in between. Their coats will often be combination of several different colors.

Many people confuse coyotes and some breeds of dogs for wolves when seen from a distance. Gray wolves are about twice the size of coyotes with larger and blockier muzzles, shorter and more rounded ears, and shorter and bushier tails.

Wolf tracks are about 5 inches long by 4 inches wide, with four symmetrical toes and evident claws, and a single lobe on the front of the foot pad. Coyote tracks are similar, but about half that size. Even the largest domestic dog breeds usually have smaller tracks.

You can check a map of known wolf range to better gauge whether you may have seen a wolf.

4. What do I do if I encounter a wolf?
It is rare to encounter wolves in the wild, but if you do, give them a respectful distance to move along. Wolves can be inquisitive. If a wolf simply watches, or even follows you, it may not pose a threat, but may just be curious.

If the wolf acts aggressive, treat it like other wild animals and maintain eye contact while backing away. If it doesn’t go away, there are some things you can do to discourage it from approaching more closely, including throwing rocks, arming yourself with a stick, and yelling. Generally, this will encourage animals, even wolves, not to stick around. It is, however, a good idea to carry bear spray when recreating in the wilds of Washington.

If you do see a wolf in the wild, you have experienced something unique. Please help out WDFW’s biologists by reporting it on our wolf reporting portal.

5. Wolves are controversial
Having been extirpated from Washington almost one hundred years ago, it is not surprising that having wolves on the landscape again could cause controversy.

Although many people want to see the species thrive in Washington, others’ livelihoods are affected by them. WDFW actively works with the public, multiple stakeholder groups, and other government agencies and tribes to balance ongoing wolf recovery with the social and economic well-being of all Washingtonians.

6. Wolves die from a range of causes
Washington’s wolf population has increased each year, but wolves also die every year from a variety of causes.

In the Eastern one-third of Washington where wolves are federally delisted, they may be lawfully killed by humans when caught in the act of attacking livestock or may be lethally removed by WDFW if a pack begins to show a pattern of attacks on livestock that cannot be resolved with non-lethal means. These events are generally rare and many nonlethal tools are used to try to avoid this. Some wolves are struck and killed by vehicles or poached. As an endangered species, hunting is not allowed by the public, although some hunting by tribal members is allowed on some tribal lands in northeast Washington.

All told, each year, about 14 to 21 wolf mortalities are documented in Washington. About 90% of these are human caused. Outside of these incidents, it is illegal to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect wolves, or attempt any of those activities. Penalties for such violations include fines of up to $100,000, with a maximum prison term of one year in jail.

7. What’s next for Washington wolves
The gray wolf is currently federally listed under the Endangered Species Act in the western two-thirds of Washington. Wolves have been federally delisted in the eastern one-third of Washington (east of State Route 97 from the Canadian border to Highway 17, east of Highway 17 to State Route 395, and east of State Route 395 to the Oregon border) but are still listed as endangered at the state level.

Wolf populations are recovering in Washington and WDFW is contemplating what wolf conservation and management will look like once wolves are no longer considered endangered. For that to happen, the wolf population must meet objectives of the Gray wolf conservation and management plan of 15 breeding pairs present in the state for at least three years, with at least four in Eastern Washington, four in the Northern Cascades, four in the Southern Cascades/Northwest Coast area, and three others anywhere in the state. Our state can consider initiating the delisting process if 18 breeding pairs are documented during a single year and statewide distribution objectives are met.

WDFW is currently developing a post-recovery plan to guide long-term conservation and management once wolves are delisted at both the state and federal levels.


Wolves occasionally emigrate from Idaho into eastern Oregon as the Idaho wolf population expands. So far this year (2002), the UWFWS has received 44 observation reports from citizens of large canid sightings in Oregon. It is believed that 25 percent of these are credible wolf sightings. Most of these observations were in the northeastern portion of the state.

There continues to be evidence of naturally recolonizing wolves emigrating from adjacent British Columbia into the Northern Cascades region and other areas of Washington State along the U.S./Canada border although there is no proof of breeding activity.

The last verification of wolves inhabiting Washington's Olympic Peninsula was prior to the 1930s. In 1999, federal and state tribal agencies released a scientific feasibility study for the Olympic National Park and concluded that the park could support roughly 50-60 wolves in about 5-6 packs.

Although there is no evidence of wild wolves inhabiting any region of California since the mid-1920s, a 1998 scientific feasibility study found that certain portions of the state could support roughly 400 wolves.


In most Native American cultures, wolves are considered a medicine being associated with courage, strength, loyalty, and success at hunting.

In the cardinal directions of Midwestern Native Americans, the wolf represented the west, but it represented the southeast for the Pawnee tribe. According to the Pawnee creation myth, the wolf was the first creature to experience death.[51] The Wolf Star, enraged at not having been invited to attend a council on how the Earth should be made, sent a wolf to steal the whirlwind bag of The Storm that Comes out of the West, which contained the first humans. Upon being freed from the bag, the humans killed the wolf, thus bringing death into the world. Native Americans have long seen the wolf as an animal of power. Many tribes credit the actual creator of the earth to be a wolf. The Arikara and Ojibwe believed a wolfman spirit made the Great Plains for them and for other animals. Many tribes consider wolves to be closely related to humans.[52] The reason for this belief is because of the wolf's dedication to its pack,[53] a trait the tribes attributed with themselves. The Navajo tribe was known for performing healing ceremonies where they would call upon wolves to restore health to their ill. Wolves were admired for their superb hunting skills. Prayers were offered in honor of wolves before they went out on hunting excursions. The Pawnee's connection with wolves was so great that their hand signal for Pawnee was actually the same one that they had for wolf. Before battles, Apache warriors would pray, sing, and dance to gain the teamwork, strength, and bravery of wolves. The Pawnee, being both an agricultural and hunting people, associated the wolf with both corn and the bison; the "birth" and "death" of the Wolf Star (Sirius) was to them a reflection of the wolf's coming and going down the path of the Milky Way known as Wolf Road. The Navajo tribe feared taboo-breaking witches (nearly always male) in wolves' clothing called yee naaldlooshii, literally "with it, he goes on all fours". Wolf in Navajo is mąʼiitsoh- literally "large coyote".[49]

There is an Omaha legend in which a wolf guides a wounded warrior back to his camp, alerting him whenever there are rival warriors nearby and showing him the easiest path. There is a story that was pushed around as Cherokee legend, Two Wolves,[48][54] that is often referenced in media but actually has ties to Christian-style parables that was told by Minister Billy Graham and actually mentioned, specifically, eskimo,[55] and because it's been attributed to the Cherokee – the one that goes around the Cherokee world has a deeper meaning and negates the "GOOD" VS "EVIL" trope.[56] In Cherokee beliefs, there is a clan called the wolf people. They would never kill a wolf, believing the spirit of the slain wolf would revenge its death. The Cherokee also believed that if a hunter showed respect and prayed before and after killing an animal such as a deer, a wolf, a fox, or an opossum would guard his feet against frostbite. The Tewa tribe believed that wolves held the powers of the east and were one of the zenith power-medicine animals.[57]

Wolves were generally revered by Aboriginal Canadians that survived by hunting, but were thought little of by those that survived through agriculture. Some Alaska Natives including the Nunamiut of both northern and northwestern Alaska respected the wolf's hunting skill and tried to emulate the wolf in order to hunt successfully. First Nations such as Naskapi as well as Squamish and Lil'wat view the wolf as a daytime hunting guide.[49] The Naskapis believed that the caribou afterlife is guarded by giant wolves that kill careless hunters who venture too near. The Netsilik Inuit and Takanaluk-arnaluk believed that the sea-woman Nuliayuk's home was guarded by wolves. Wolves were feared by the Tsilhqot'in, who believed that contact with wolves would result in nervous illness or death.[50] The Dena'ina believed wolves were once men, and viewed them as brothers.[2]

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