Isaac's amazing Timber Wolf

  The timber wolf is very active animal. It is the same as the gray wolf. It is most active at night when it hunts in packs. If they hunt in packs they could hunt large animals. Timber wolves can be found in prairies and forests.  The color varies from nearly all white to nearly all black, but they are usually gray. A pack is very complex and strictly organized.

      The alpha, or dominant male is the leader of the pack. The wolves are big game hunters. All the wolves are carnivore’s .They hunt birds and mammals such as deer and caribou. They will hunt in a pack of about 12 or more wolves. Their hunting range is about 60 miles in diameter. They can run up to 40 miles an hour. They can also cover 50 miles a day. By smell the can track their pray. They help maintain a balance in the food web.

In the spring the females have from 1 to 11 pups. The pups are born blind and deaf, so they have to depend on their mother and other members of the pack. The pups will stay with their parents until the following winter, but they might stay with the pack or stay with their parents to make up a basic pack. The scientific name of the timber is Canis lupus. The binomial name is derived from the Latin, Canis, meaning "dog", and lupus, "wolf.

      Under the Endangered Species List, the gray wolf, also known as the timber wolf is listed as a threatened species in Minnesota and an endangered species in the United States. The decreasing numbers of wolves are the result of encroachments on their territory by humans, who have regarded wolves as competitors for prey and as dangerous to livestock, pets, and people.

      Wild wolves are generally timid around humans, though overall, how they react to people generally depends on prior experiences with humans rather than inherent behavior. Historically, attacks by non-rabid wolves tended to be clustered in space and time. However, compared to other carnivorous, mammals known to attack humans, the frequency with which wolves have been recorded to kill people is rather low, indicating that though potentially dangerous, wolves are among the least threatening for their size and predatory potential. More aggressive encounters have been recorded as humans begin to encroach on North American wolf habitat more.

Click on these links for more info:

The Gray Wolf 2/19/09:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_wolf

The Timber Wolf, from the bear country website 2/19/09: www.bearcountryusa.com/animals/animal_info.php

Timber Wolf, Cani lupus 1/19/09: www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/eastern_timber_wolf.html

The Gray Wolf was once the world's most widely distributed mammal, living north of 15°N latitude in North America and 12°N in Eurasia. Though once abundant, the gray wolf inhabits a very small portion of its former range because of widespread destruction of its habitat.