The Endangered Wolf

I've loved wolves ever since I was in 1st grade. I created this blog to raise awareness about them. This essay was written by me right after 3rd grade:

Calling All Dog Lovers!
Come and Read What’s Here!
The Endangered Wolf

Wolves are amazing but misunderstood animals. There are several stories with unkind and untrue information about wolves. All of them say the same thing, “You better be careful, or the wolf will eat you up!” “Hey, that’s not true! We are nice and shy animals. Why do we have to be mistreated by the ‘big bad humans’?” say the wolves. And believe it or not, the wolves are right. Hopefully, by the time you finish reading this, you’ll know the truth about these wonderful animals.

Close your eyes and imagine a husky. Then close your eyes and imagine a wolf. How different are they? They are extraordinarily similar. Have you ever noticed how your dog acts toward you (if you have a dog)? The loyalty you find in dogs is actually the same loyalty that wolves hold toward their leaders. Guess what? Wolves are the ancestors of dogs. It might not be easy to take in that information, but that’s just the truth. You might be surprised to find out that wolves and dogs are very much alike, except that wolves are bigger, wilder, and shier. In fact, there have been no genetic differences found between dogs and wolves. If they are so similar, why do we love dogs and hate wolves?

Dogs are loyal, loving, faithful, and domesticated. However, wolves are wild carnivores with sharp teeth. Wolves are known to kill livestock. Fairy tales about wolves such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs poison people’s minds and make them think that wolves are evil and are a danger to them and their children. These are some of the reasons we hate wolves and are afraid of them. But not everyone hates wolves. Native Americans thought of the wolves as their warrior brothers and use some of the skills that wolves use to hunt buffalo, deer, and other ungulates (hoofed animals).

Wolves create problems for humans by killing livestock. People don’t understand why wolves do this when they could be eating deer instead. But they can’t eat deer because humans have moved into wolf territories and have hunted deer, so there’s not enough deer for the wolves to eat. That’s when wolves turn to livestock, because of the loss of prey. But why do wolves eat livestock? Why can’t they eat plants like deer do? That’s because their bodies are not made for plants. They do eat berries sometimes, but they can’t live on berries because they’re carnivores. For these reasons and also because livestock are easy to catch, they’re left with not much choice but to eat livestock. Since wolves eat livestock, they get hunted and become endangered.

Long ago, wolves used to live almost all over the northern hemisphere. But, today, mostly because of humans, their range has been cut back and their population has decreased. Life as a wolf is hard and dangerous. It’s not easy for them to hunt down deer and other ungulates. These strong animals could badly hurt wolves with their powerful feet and antlers. So wolves only eat the old and sick ones. Wolves might have to live for days without food, because there may not be enough old and sick prey around. If a wolf does bring down a healthy herd member, then they’re pretty lucky. Wolves can get kicked by their prey, get sick, get run over by a car, get shot, get poisoned, or get killed by humans in other ways. Humans are frightening beasts for them, especially with all the habitat destruction and all the wolf-hunting. Some pups don’t make it to adulthood. Some wolves might become lone wolves and die as lone wolves or meet other lone wolves and start a pack. Although the gray wolves were considered endangered soon after the pioneers started hunting them, they are now no longer considered endangered because there are about 200,000 of them worldwide. But some wolf species and subspecies, like the Mexican Gray wolf, the Red wolf, and the Abyssinian wolf, are considered critically endangered. So what will happen if wolves become extinct?

Every living thing helps in some way. Wolves are here to help the ungulates, by controlling the size and strength of the herds. They eat the old and sick so the herds stay medium-sized, strong, and healthy. In many regions where there aren’t enough wolves, the deer population has grown out of control. If wolves are reintroduced in those regions, then humans won’t have to take the trouble to control the size of the deer herds by shooting them. Wolves have also brought us those wonderful friends now called dogs.

All in all, wolves have become victims throughout history. They have been made to look like the predators of humans. But, in fact, humans, though unseen, have become the predators of the wolf. I hope that you’ve learned the truth about wolves after reading this article. Since every living thing helps in some way, it would be kind if you could help prevent wolf-killing. There many things you can do to help wolves. You could convince law makers to make laws that protect wolves. You could also protect and preserve forests for all wildlife. You would be helping not only the wolves, but other creatures as well.