Identifying Characteristics for Canis lupus lycaon-Eastern Timber Wolf

Height at shoulder is 26"-36".
Weight ranges from 65-85 lbs.(female) to 80-95 lbs.(male), occasionally exceeds 100 lbs.
Length from nose to tip of tail 5'-6'(female) to 5.5'-6.5'(male).
Tracks are generally 3.5"-4" wide and 4.5"-5" long.
Ears are more rounded and shorter than those of the coyote.
Color varies from white to black with varying shades of gray or tan. Coyotes are seldom white or black.

Most wolves live in family units called packs. The family structure consists of the breeding pair and their offspring which may include subordinate adults, one year old juveniles, and pups. Pack size usually numbers less than eight individuals and is dependent upon mortality of adults and dispersal of pack members.

Wolf packs have very complex social structures. To maintain group order, wolves have a highly developed system of communication which includes many different facial expressions, body postures, and vocalizations. Such communications are essential to maintain the structure and survival of the pack.

Normally, only the dominant (Alpha) pair in a pack breeds. Mating occurs in February-March with an average of 4-7 pups born 63 days later. Approximately 50% of the pups do not survive their first year due to such factors as injury, disease, and starvation.

Wolves are opportunistic and do kill healthy prey if they are able to catch them. Generally, however, it is the weak, sick, crippled, parasite infested, young or old prey that are most vulnerable. By culling unfit prey, wolves play a vital role in the process of natural selection. In Yellowstone Park, wolves are promoting increased biodiversity as they kill coyotes, and through predation on elk, provide carcasses that benefit grizzlies and scanvengers such as eagles and wolverines.

Wolf packs occupy territories that may range in size from less than fifty to more than one thousand square miles. Factors affecting territory size include size of area available, number of wolves in the whole population, and density of prey.

Approximately sixty percent of young wolves leave their family packs (this phenomenon is known as dispersal), most doing so by two years of age. Dispersing wolves leave their natal territory to find a mate and an unoccupied territory in which to begin a new pack. They have been documented to travel more than five hundred airline miles during dispersal.

Wolf occupied territories are some seventy five miles from the Maine border in and adjacent to the Laurentide Reserve in southern Quebec. Known wolf range extends south to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, within fifty miles of Maine. In August 1993, a two year old female eastern timber wolf was killed by a hunter from Pennsylvania northwest of Moosehead Lake. The animal was identified as a wolf through DNA comparison with a known wolf from eastern Canada.

The Province of Quebec allows the hunting and trapping of wolves south to the Maine border for more than five months of each year. Although, according to the Quebec government, wolves have not been documented south of the St. Lawrence River, there is apparently no requirement that wolves shot or trapped in this area be reported. Trapping is also permitted within the Laurentide Reserve, where population density is estimated to be one wolf per sixty square miles.

Wolves feed primarily on ungulates. In Maine, they would feed primarily on moose, deer and beaver. In recent years, Maine's pre-hunting season deer and moose populations combined have approximated 400,000 animals. A recovered population of 100 wolves (approximately 15-25 packs) would annually take less than one percent of either the pre-hunt or post-hunt populations of deer and moose combined and far fewer than the number of animals killed annually in collisions with motor vehicles.

According to the recovery plan for the eastern timber wolf which was developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine and northern New Hampshire contain some 12,800 square miles of potentially suitable wolf habitat.

Wolves do not require wilderness. They do require a healthy prey base, sufficient habitat, and most importantly, tolerance by people who allow them to survive. Timber harvesting and wildlife management practices that promote a diverse and productive forest are beneficial to wolves.

Wolf recovery can result in economic benefits. In a Federal Environmental Impact Statement, it was estimated that wolf recovery in Yellowstone would result in increased visitor expenditures in the region in the amount of $23,000,000.00 per year. The International Wolf Center located in Ely, Minnesota (pop. 4,000), averages some 50,000 visitors annually. Wolf related ecotourism (howling and tracking) is becoming increasingly popular in both the U.S. and Canada, such as in Quebec's Jacques-Cartier Provincial Park and Laurentide Reserve. In the summer of 1997, one ecotourism company in the Reserve had 3000 customers for its wolf howling excursions.

Fiction: Where wolf populations recover, hunting would have to be limited or stopped completely.

Fact: Minnesota has the largest wolf population in the lower 48 states with an estimated 2,000 animals. In 1994, some 500,000 firearms and bow deer hunting licenses were sold in the state. During the last two decades, both wolf and white tailed deer populations have increased greatly. In fact, Minnesota's registered deer harvest increased from a low of 36,000 animals in 1976, to a high of 229,000 animals in 1992. Furthermore, Minnesota ranks first in the nation in the number of trophy buck entries in the Boone & Crockett Club's "Records of North American Big Game." Wolf recovery has been occurring in Wisconsin for some twenty years. Wisconsin ranks second in the number of trophy whitetails listed in the Boone & Crockett Club record books. It's 650,000 firearms deer hunters harvest some 350,000 deer annually. (Sources: Minnesota DNR, Duluth News Tribune 10/29/95, Wisconsin DNR Life Tracks)

Fiction: Wolves would decimate Maine's deer and moose herds.

Fact: A population of 100 wolves (approximately 15-25 packs) would take less than one percent of the combined moose and deer populations. Very young, old or unfit animals are most susceptible to predation. A study conducted in Algonquin Provincial Park showed 58 percent of deer killed by wolves in winter to be six years of age and older even though deer in this class accounted for only 10 percentof the population. Wolves also may prey heavily on beaver during the months of open water. Some 12-16,000 coyotes live in Maine. They feed primarily on deer, snowshoe hare, small mammals and berries, and they take an estimated 22,000 deer in Maine annually. Wolves generally kill and harass coyotes and there is growing evidence that coyote populations decrease in wolf occupied territories. For example, with wolf recovery in Yellowstone National Park, it is estimated that coyote populations will decline some 40-70%. (Sources: Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Wisconsin DNR Life Tracks, Francois Potvin & Helene Jolicoeur "Wolf diet and prey selectivity during two periods for deer in Quebec: decline versus expansion," Strickland and Rutter "Mammals of Algonquin Provincial Park," Rick McIntyre pers. comm.)

Fiction: Wolves would close the north woods to timber harvesting and development.

Fact: Wolves do not require wilderness. They do, however, require a healthy prey base, enough suitable forest land to roam, and most importantly, a measure of tolerance by people who allow them to survive. Timber cutting, wildlife habitat management, and other practices that promote a diverse and productive forest are good management practices for the wolf. Furthermore, wolf populations seem little affected by snowmobiles, cars, trucks, logging, mining and other human activities except as they might facilitate killing by humans. Wolves are adaptable; they cross four lane highways and open landscapes and den near logging sites. In Quebec's Laurentide Reserve, wolf packs denned near active roads, hiking/bicycle trails, and large clearcuts in 1996. There is no evidence that timber harvesting or development will be affected by wolf recovery in Maine. (Sources: Michigan DNR "Wolf Facts", Todd K. Fuller-"Guidelines for Gray Wolf Management in the Northern Great Lakes Region," pers. comm. Helene Jolicoeur 8/96.)

Fiction: Wolf recovery will not benefit Maine's economy.

Fact: Wolf recovery in Yellowstone National Park and adjacent areas has resulted in a surge in ecotourism revenue. In Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park, more than 74,000 people participated in public wolf howls from 1963-1993. Since it's opening in 1993, Ely, Minnesota's International Wolf Center has received some 50,000 visitors each year. The Center generates some $3 million in annual economic activity and has created an estimated 66 jobs. In Quebec's Jacques-Cartier Provincial Park, one entrepreneur grossed $80,000 Canadian from January-April 1995 conducting wolf howling and tracking expeditions. Tourism is a $3 billion per year industry in Maine. With 70 million people within a one day drive of Maine, sporting camps, guides, motels, restaurants, gift shops, and bookstores are among those who stand to benefit from wolf-related ecotourism. (Sources: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Yellowstone/Idaho EIS, Dan Strickland "Wolf Howling in Algonquin Provincial Park," Walter Medwid/International Wolf Center-pers. comm., David T. Schaller "The Ecocenter as Tourist Attraction: Ely and the International Wolf Center," Pierre Vaillancourt-pers. comm., Senate Pres. Jeffrey Butland/Bangor Daily News, Maine Wolf Coalition)