Eastern Wolf

Eastern Wolf Description:
The eastern wolf is a smaller form of the gray wolf. Recent genetic analyses have shown that it contains both red wolf and coyote genes. It has a fawn-coloured pelt with long black hairs on the back and sides, and a reddish colour behind the ears. Adult males weigh between 25 and 35 kg, (55 to 80 lbs) and females weigh between 20 and 30 kg, (40 to 66 lbs).

Population and Distribution of the Eastern Wolf:
The Eastern wolf once occupied a range throughout eastern North America as far north as the Great Lakes. Due to habitat loss, and deliberate attempts to exterminate wolves throughout their range over more than a century, Eastern wolves were eliminated in most of their historical range. Today they occupy a narrow band stretching from the Gulf of St Lawrence to southeastern Manitoba. The exact boundaries of this range are still poorly defined. However, wolves are seldom seen any great distance south of Algonquin or Gatineau parks.

The eastern wolf is found mainly in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence regions of Quebec and Ontario. Its current range covers approximately 210,000 km2, which represents 42 % of its original range in Canada. Its distribution and taxonomic classification (whether it is a species or a sub-species) are currently under review. The number of eastern wolves is estimated at 2,000 individuals, 1,000 of which are breeding adults, spread among 500 packs. The highest population densities are found in southwestern Quebec and southeastern Ontario, particularly in Algonquin Park. Although the species has disappeared from the more populated, southern portions of its range, and although some local populations are being hunted at unsustainable levels, the species’ overall abundance seems to have remained relatively stable over the past decade.

Threats:
The Eastern Wolf has disappeared from all of southern Ontario largely as a result of forest clearance and farmland development, and the subsequent loss of habitat. Wolves live in packs and require relatively large areas of unbroken forest. Wolves can be hunted in Ontario year-round and it is estimated that hunters kill about 10% of the population annually in Ontario.

Effect of the loss of the Eastern Wolf:
All animals play important roles in their natural environments, but there are some that determine basic ecological process. The wolf is one, known among conservation scientists as a highly “interactive” species. As a top predator, the wolf regulates entire food chains, so both its presence and absence has cascading effects.

Research in the Great Lakes region shows that the browsing of plants, shrubs, and seedlings by deer is less intense in areas where wolves are present, giving vegetation a greater chance of survival and growth. And in Ontario and Québec, officials recognize the important role that wolves play in maintaining the diversity of both wildlife and vegetation.

Whose helping the Eastern Wolves?
The Eastern wolf has been designated by both the federal and Ontario governments as a species of Special Concern. Canada’s Species at Risk Act requires that the federal minister prepare a Management Plan for the Eastern wolf by May 2008 that includes measures for the conservation of the species and its habitat, in cooperation with each province and territory in which the species is found.

A Strategy for Wolf Conservation in Ontario was adopted in June 2005. It represents an initial step towards a conservation strategy for Ontario wolves. Unfortunately, it does not provide adequate protection, especially for the Eastern wolf, which continues to be hunted and trapped throughout most of its range.

It is CPAWS-OV’s (Canadian Parks & wilderness society - Ottawa Valley )position that the Ontario government should:
*Establish a permanent Wolf Advisory Committee immediately.
*Implement an immediate ban on killing of Gray and Eastern wolves in all provincial parks and conservation reserves.
*Implement an immediate ban on killing of Eastern wolves throughout their current and historical range (for example, in the Algonquin to Adirondacks region which is a potential recovery area for the species).
*Establish a comprehensive provincial Eastern Wolf conservation and recovery strategy.

Make a decision:
I think that the most effective thing to do is ban the killing of the eastern wolf in all the provinces, and i someonde do they have to pay a huge fine or something like that. And try to mate the species in placs that they will be safe, away from the civilization.