Gray wolf release

A gray wolf fitted with a radio collar is released into the wild. The gray wolf or Canis lupus, often known simply as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family. Though once abundant over much of Eurasia, North Africa and North America, the gray wolf inhabits a reduced portion of its former range due to widespread destruction of its territory, human encroachment, and the resulting human-wolfencounters that sparked broad extirpation. Even so, the gray wolf is regarded as being of least concern for extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, when the entire gray wolf population is considered as a whole. Today, wolves are protected in some areas, hunte Image taken from USFWS Pacific Region Flickr page.d for sport in others, or may be subject to population control or extermination as threats to livestock, people, and pets.