The wolves gain the advantage in the woods The snow is not melted there The wolves wide round paws help them dash across the snow’s crust The caribou’s heavier bodies cause their hooves to sink to the ground The slowest caribou begins to fall behind the rest of the herd Moments after the prey crosses into the forest the caribou in the back catches sight of the predators It scrambles to move to the middle of the herd But trying to move quickly through the snow only slows the animal down The wolves surround the caribou as its herd bounds farther away The pack had been focused on this caribou from the start It had been limping ever so slightly The wolves know it is the easiest to catch The lead female wolf races in front of the caribou Dashing back and forth she blocks its path to the disappearing herd She is the quickest wolf but the males are stronger They take down the trembling prey After the kill the lead male and female eat first 6
The remaining members of a pack feed after the alpha male and female 7
The other adults and the pups wait their turn The young wolves had tagged along to observe the hunt They will show what they have learned when they grow bigger Almost Lost For centuries people have feared wolves When food is scarce these predators sometimes hunt farmers livestock The animals have become a symbol for evil Stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and Peter and the Wolf reflect these fears During the last two centuries thousands of wolves have disappeared from the lower 48 states 8 The Alexander Archipelago Wolf The largest gray wolf population in the United States is found in Alaska Between 7,000 and 11,200 members of the species live in this northernmost state The Alexander Archipelago wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf A subspecies is a group of animals within a certain species that share certain features The Alexander Archipelago wolf has darker fur than other gray wolves This wolf subspecies has been decreasing in numbers due to hunting trapping and logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
People often depict wolves as animals to be feared One of the biggest reasons is human activity People have hunted and trapped gray wolves to near extinction Humans have moved into the wolves ranges Many of these people become angry when wolves then trespass on claimed property 9
