April 2023 • Nebraskaland 47
the Hastings Museum in Hastings,
Nebraska, and is still on display. Many
reports of wild wolves occurred over
the years since then, but none were
confirmed until a wolf from the Great
Lakes area was killed near Spaulding,
Nebraska, in 2002.
Present Distribution and
Dispersal to Nebraska
Gray wolves are the largest canid and
had the widest historic distribution
of all mammals other than humans,
encompassing most of the northern
hemisphere including almost all
of North America, Europe and Asia.
While they once flourished across
most of North America, they are now
mostly relegated to dense forests near
the Great Lakes, the northern Rocky
Mountains, northern California and
the Pacific Northwest, Canada and
Alaska.
Wolves are capable dispersers and
Adult gray wolves are larger than
most common dog breeds, standing
about 30 inches high at the shoulder
and weighing 70-130 lbs. Despite the
name "gray wolf," early explorers in
Nebraska described their fur color as
gray, dusky, white, brown, black and
yellow.
Wolves are predators that hunt
cooperatively in a pack allowing them
to focus on large herbivores like bison,
elk, moose and white-tailed and mule
deer. They are adaptable and will also feed on smaller animals, insects,
plant matter and scavenge when needed. Unfortunately for livestock
owners, and wolves themselves, they also sometimes depredate
livestock. Wolves in North America are not typically a danger for people.
Wolves are intelligent, cunning and highly social. They hunt in packs
averaging around eight wolves that consist of a dominant pair —
which produces pups for the pack and may mate for life — and their
subordinate offspring of various ages. It is essentially a family group
guided by the older parents. The dominant female has one litter of four
to eight young each year, often in a den dug into the soil. Older wild
wolves may live eight or more years.
Biology
More than fi ve hundred men participated in a hunt in January 1913 near Elmwood, with 11 coyotes killed.
COURTESY HISTORY NEBRASKA
