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There has not been an authen- ticated attack by a healthy wolf on a human in North America. The several recorded attacks were made by rabidwolves, whichwere killed and the disease thereby doc- umented. It may be that because the Eurasian subspecies of wolf was exposed to humans long before the advent of firearms, it had less to fear from them. Wolves originated in the New

World in the middle Pliocene epoch, about 5 million years ago, and had developed and diversi- fied by the middle of the Pleis- tocene epoch, about 1.5 million years ago. One type, the Dire wolf, was the largest wolf known to exist. A small type of wolf crossed into Siberia from Alaska, where it eventually developed into the larger, present-day grey wolf, Canis lupus. The grey wolf then migrated back to North America, where it populated all of what is now Canada and the United States, except for the southeast- ern section of the latter country. That area was populated by the smaller red wolf, C. rufus, which developed there. The United States government is trying to repopulate the Southeast with the red wolf today. The grey wolf was well established inNorthAmerica by the time the first Indians and Eskimos came across Beringia, about 18,000 years ago. Every wild creature was designed and adapted to fill a special niche in the web of life. We may not like what any crea- ture does, but then no one ever asked us to. To paraphrase Ger- trude Stein, “A wolf is a wolf is a wolf.” Let us look at the wolves and then join them on their trav- els throughout the year.

This yawning wolf shows off the dentition of a meat-eating predator. The long canine teeth are used for grasping and tearing the prey animal. The high- ridged carnassial teeth in the back of the mouth are used for scissoring off chunks of meat to be swallowed.

Unless they are sheltering their young in a den, wolves sleep in the open throughout the year.

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