Gray Wolf
Canis lupis

Gray wolves are an integral part of Minnesota, symbols of our state’s pride in wild lands. They are also the state’s most controversial animals: alternately loved, hated, feared, and admired. With their powerful build, strong jaws, muscular legs, and large feet, these members of the canine family are large and efficient predators.

What They Eat
Wolves eat deer, moose, beavers, and small mammals such as snowshoe hare. In Minnesota, they are at the top of the food chain.

Where They Live
Wolves are limited to northern forests and tundra from North America through Asia and Europe. They usually avoid people, although this is changing as expanding human populations force more interaction.

What They Do
Social animals, wolves live and hunt in packs made up of 2-30 or more individuals (average 6-8). Minnesota packs often roam a territory of 50 or more square miles.

How They’re Doing
Minnesota has the largest population of gray wolves in the lower 48 states: 3000 as of 2003. Once almost gone from the 48 states, northern Minnesota boasts one of the few remaining populations. After decades of aggressive protection, wolves are again doing well in Minnesota.

Gray Wolf

Wolf pups weigh only one pound when born. They start out blind and deaf, completely dependent on their mother for food and protection.

Gray wolves eat an average of 3-5 pounds of meat daily, but can gorge themselves on up to 20 pounds in one sitting. Wolves are designed for a lifestyle of feast or famine, and can go weeks without food.

Although considered great hunters, Minnesota’s wolves only kill about one out of every five deer they stalk. Adult wolves eat the equivalent of 15-20 full-grown deer each year.

Wolves are known for strong frames and muscles. Their jaws, for instance, can crush bones at a pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch. (A human jaw: 300).

Gray wolves have a sense of smell 80 times stronger than humans. This helps them track, hunt, communicate, and avoid danger.

After smell, hearing is wolves’ strongest sense. Keen ears help them detect both threats and food. They also help wolves communicate over long distances, which is critical for a far-flung pack.

Wolves cover large areas in their hunt for food. They can trot 40 miles without resting.

Gray wolves do well in northern winters by growing thick, warm coats. They manage warm weather by shedding their dense undercoats.

Wolves live by their feet. Big feet help them move in snow better than deer or moose.

Wolves have been clocked at 35 mph for short distances. The world record human sprint is 23 mph.

Helpful hints for viewing the animals

Wolves are extremely wary and seldom seen by people.

Gray Wolf

Care at the Zoo

Wolves in zoos don't have the same opportunities for physical and mental stimulation that wild wolves do. To remedy this, zookeepers provide them with objects or changes to their environment (enrichment) that encourage behaviors they would naturally express in the wild. This helps keep life interesting for the wolves by presenting them with challenges and new things to explore.

Gray Wolf

A symbol of strength, wilderness, and family bonds, the gray wolf is integral to Minnesota’s northern ecosystems. Living in highly socialized packs, wolves usually avoid people, often roaming a territory of 25 to 150 square miles. Their grizzly coats can be varying shades of gray mixed with brown, white, or black markings. A thick undercoat provides insulation and long guard hairs keep out moisture. Long legs and large paws provide support in the snow. Gray wolves have long, bushy tails which they hold straight out when on the move.

Range and Habitat
North America is host to two different wolf species: the gray wolf (Canus lupus) and the red wolf (Canus rufus). Gray wolves are by far the most plentiful and include several subspecies, including the Mexican gray wolf (Canis pupus baileyi), which is the most endangered. Other gray wolf subspecies include the Rocky Mountain, Artic, Eastern Timber, and Minnesota’s own Great Plains wolves. Subspecies can be difficult to tell apart due to cross-breeding where ranges overlap. Notable differences in size and color are probably due to geographic range, habitat, and available prey. The largest individuals tend to occur in the northern forests of North America.

As long as sufficient food is available, gray wolves can successfully adapt to a variety of climates and terrain. Their current range is the northern United States, Alaska, and Canada. Minnesota packs live in the state’s northern forests, although in recent years they have been moving as far south as Lake Mille Lacs.   

Diet
Gray wolves prey on a variety of large and small animals, including beaver and moose, and will also scavenge carrion (deal animals). They are opportunistic, usually killing what is easiest to catch-the weak, sick, injured, old, and very young, but will also take healthy, strong animals when possible. In Minnesota, white-tailed deer make up about 80% of their diet.

Social Organization
Wolves are social animals. They hunt together, eat together, and play together in packs. Strong packs can more effectively kill large animals and better defend territory. Building this strength requires a solid social structure and good communication.

The pack
The wolf pack is one of nature’s most sophisticated social orders, as well as one of the most intensively studied throughout the world. A pack in Minnesota is usually six to eight family members (though they may grow to as many as 15). Some packs also contain older related animals. The breeding adults (alpha pair) are the leaders. They spend a great deal of effort reinforcing their leadership through intimidation and sometimes force. But cooperation is key-the pack depends on all its members for survival.

Communication
The howl of a wolf is symbolic of our northern wilderness. This is one way wolves communicate over distances. Close up, they use sounds and body language to get across a message. Wolves also communicate by scent. Dominant wolves (both male and female) will raise their leg to mark territory against other packs and to reaffirm leadership within their own pack. They also actively leave scents to signal their territory.

Reproduction
The pack’s social structure generally determines which wolves will breed (usually only the “alpha” pair), and produce the year’s single litter of pups. If prey is especially abundant, additional packs members may also be allowed to mate. Breeding occurs in late January through early March, with a litter of 2-6 pups born 63 days later in a den located in a rock crevice or a hold dug by the parents. Pups are born deaf and blind, but can hear within a few days. After 4-6 weeks the pups leave the den and begin to investigate their surroundings. As they mature, the pack relocates to a more open area within their territory. By fall pups are large enough to hunt with the pack, and will reach their adult size by 10 months of age.