European Wolves

European wolves live and hunt in packs which are actually one big family consisting of the alpha ( dominant male), his mate (dominant female) and their offspring. They stay within a home range but would wander far outside their territory to hunt if necessary. They hunt and kill preys that are up to 10 times heavier than their own weight.

When cubs are born, the male would bring food back to the den ( place where the cubs are born at, usually dug among bushes or rocks) either by carrying it whole or swallowing and then regurgitating for the others to eat. As the cubs grow, the mother and other members of the pack help to feed them.

Very few European countries still have substantial numbers of wolves. As wild wolves are difficult to track, the exact numbers of european wolves are unknown. European wolves have survived only in very remote, mountainous or densely forested regions, these are areas where wolves can live withour coming into contact with humans. However, these areas are decreasing.

European wolves eat wild reindeer, elk and red deer but will also eat smaller animals like, mice and frogs. However, because the numbers of wild game are declining, they have began preying on domestic horses, cattle and dogs. They would even eat potatoes, fruits, buds and lichen when they are starving. As a result of increasing shortage of natural prey in Italy, wolves are forced to give up their pack-huntinghabits and go around villages and farmhouses to scavenge for food, thus, wolves now have to resort to being scavengers. Fortunately, thses wolves are officially protected and projects financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature, may be able the protect these wolves if farmers and herdsman can be persuaded to accept them and not kill them. As many wolves feed at open dumps along side feral or stry dogs, these dogs and wolves occasionally mate and their offspring are often impossible to to distinguish from ordinary dogs.

Wolf dog's wander freely through populated areas because they are unrecognised as wolves. This is dangerous because wolf dogs are wilder than their feral parents and are extremely ferocious and are often infected with rabies.

In Norway, these wolves are protected officially. It is now illegal to kill wolves other than farmers protecting their livestock. Also, to prevent the continuous slaughter, farmers are compensated for the livestock that has been killed by these endangered wolves.

"Grupo Lobo" , a law in Spain and Portugal, was founded to protec the wolves in the mountains on the Spain/Portugal border. However, there is still an extremely small number of wolves. But these systems are often abused, lapp herdsman in the North of Sweden often blame the deaths of their reindeer on wolves rather than on poor care.

The "wolf-plague" in Scotland resulted in the extermination of the wolves there. The last British wolf died in 1743. Wolves existed in Ireland until about 1773. A similar wolf extermination in the European continent drove the last few survivors into remote areas far away from humans.

Despite all the laws imposed, Wolfers refuse to stop killing wolves. They kill wolves as a sport and are willing to spend millions to kill wolves. This shows that to ensure that wolves would not become extinct, action should be taken against people who hunt wolves.