TIMBER WOLF

This is Canis lupus lycaon....the Eastern Timber Wolf, a.k.a Algonquin Wolf.  Considered an Endangered Species in Wisconsin.....the Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is not endangered in WI having well over 20,000 individuals mostly in the northern areas of the state.
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It is a canine of debated taxonomy native to the Great Lakes region and southeastern Canada. It is considered to be either a unique subspecies of gray wolf or red wolf or a separate species from both.  We have several packs in Wisconsin.
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WIKI:  Long ago, the land in Wisconsin provided wolves with the kind of habitat (food, water, shelter, space) they needed. But beginning in the 1830s, many European settlers moved to our state and started to change the landscape. They cleared land to put in roads and to build towns and farms. They hunted elk and bison, animals that were part of wolves' diets, until the elk and bison were gone. Animals responded in different ways to these habitat changes. Some animals such as rabbits, quail and deer were able to adapt to the new habitats created around farms. Their numbers grew. Other animals, such as wolves, couldn't adapt to the changes. Their numbers declined.


Wolves were also affected by the ideas people had about them. Some settlers were afraid of wolves. Settlers thought wolves would kill so many deer that there wouldn't be any left for them to feed their families. They were also afraid that wolves would kill all their livestock.
In 1865 people passed bounty laws in Wisconsin. People could kill all the wolves they wanted to and they were paid money to do so. Bounty laws were changed in 1957, but by then there were few wolves left in Wisconsin. At that time, the only wild wolves in North america were in Minnesota, Canada, and Alaska.
In the early 1970s, new wolf packs were found in northern Wisconsin. Where do you think they came from? Minnesota. These new packs needed protection, so in 1975 wolves were added to Wisconsin's endangered species list. In 1979 wildlife biologists began to monitor wolf populations and to study wolves and wolf behavior to learn more about them and what they needed to survive.
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