The third week in October every year is set aside to help promote Wolf Awareness Week. As an animal that is often much maligned and even vulnerable due to humans often seeing them as a threat, Wolf Awareness Week was created to highlight the importance of these beautiful animals.
Through a combination of fear, misinformation and intolerance surrounding the Wolf, their importance in their local ecosystems is often overlooked and they are only perceived as a threat to the environment rather than a positive.
Wolves in their natural habitats play a key role in ensuring that the populations of deer and moose in the local areas stay at manageable levels, but even with this invaluable service being provided their numbers are still dropping. The biggest threat to the Wolf is man, and for many centuries Wolves have been shot, trapped and poisoned because man has perceived them as a threat to their cattle and other livestock.
Occasionally Wolves hunt alone, but they are famous for being pack hunters. Their family groups range in number between 3-30 and is led by an alpha male and female. These Wolf pairs will often mate for life, and their litters consist of from 4-6 pups.
Whilst farmers may see the Wolf as a threat, they will avoid attacking livestock if possible and will try and stick to their preferred diet of the occasional large animal (moose or elk), or smaller animals such as mice and rabbits.
The Wolf is an animal which is normally associated with power and strength which may be why people do not realise that they are struggling. If we do not increase our Wolf conservation efforts then these incredible animals may not be around for much longer.
