Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes


Gray Wolf Habitat Requirements are best represented by the habitat requirements of its two major prey species - white-tailed deer and beaver.

Gray Wolf Habitat Requirements are the combination of White-tailed Deer and Beaver Habitat Requirements distributed across the NEIGHBORHOOD

White-tailed Deer Habitat Requirements Non-wintering:
      (Any Upland Deciduous (Regen))
      or (Any Upland Mixed (Regen))
      or Grass
      or Upland Brush
      or Savanna
      or Small Grains/Forage Crops
      or Fields/Pasture

Beaver Habitat Requirements:
      (Lake or Pond or River)
   adjacent to:
      (Aspen (Any Size Class))
      or (Paper Birch (Any Size Class))
      or (Assorted Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Balsam Poplar&Swamp Aspen&Swamp Birch (Any Size Class))
      or Lowland Brush

White-tailed Deer Winter (Foraging and Cover) 1st alternative:
      (Aspen (Regen))
      or (Paper Birch (Regen))
      or (Assorted Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Hemlock (Regen))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Northern White Cedar (Regen))
      or (Mixed Lowland Conifer (Regen))
   adjacent to (Winter Cover):
      (Hemlock (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (White Pine (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Northern White Cedar (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))    
      or (Mixed Lowland Conifer (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))

White-tailed Deer Wintering 2nd alternative:
      (Hemlock (Uneven))

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

Throughout its range, this species occupies diverse habitats, including tundra, mountains, prairies, and forests. The two prime requisites for wolves appear to be an abundance of large game and minimal interference from humans.

Prey - white-tail deer and moose. Up to a third of the diet consists of smaller mammals, such as beavers, rabbits, squirrels and even mice.

Habitat Preferences: Folklore generally places the stealthy large-fanged gray wolf in the deep forest. However, early travelers in the American West found the species following herds of bison far out on the prairie, while explorers in Arctic attracted curious wolves on the bleak and wind-swept tundra. Nevertheless, in presettlement Michigan the gray wolf probably was a forest creature which also frequented openings, lakeshores, and riparian growth along streams. Winter lake ice must have been a means of passage, just as it is today at Isle Royale. Another basic habitat requirement seems to be the need for extensive environment encroached on, but to a very minimum, by the human species and by large species and/or free-ranging domestic livestock. The gray wolf on Isle Royale frequents all habitats, traveling game trails along forest edges and at lake shorelines. As a top carnivore, its special environmental preferences may be overshadowed by its need to pursue moose and other highly mobile prey. This is clearly demonstrated by accounts of the variety of environments in which Michigan gray wolves were sighted or killed in pioneer days.

Density and Movements: Gray wolves need large amounts of animal protein - 10 to 14 lbs per day. To be assured of a continual supply of food (primarily kills of white-tailed deer and other large herbivores), gray wolves, whether they operate singly, in family groups, or in packs require great expanses which can support prey populations sufficiently large so as not to be markedly decimated by the continual predation.

Gray wolves use dens for rearing young in the breeding season and also as shelters in winter. The nursery den is often a ground cavity excavated by the animals themselves or an enlarged burrow of a woodchuck, badger, or fox. Other den sites for the rearing of young are located in hollow logs, under ledges, and beneath piles of debris. Most den sites are well-drained situations, often with commanding views of the surroundings, and in the vicinity of travel routes. In winter, various kinds of shelters may be used-snow tunnels, under roots of fallen trees, beneath ledges, and in beaver lodges.

Associates: An array of wild creatures undoubtedly trails packs of gray wolves to share in feeding on their kills. Marten, wolverine, and bobcat are noted for this, while the raven, gray jay, bald eagle, and black-capped chickadee also profit from this relationship.

Food Habits: The white-tailed deer is the primary food of the gray wolf in the Upper Great Lakes Region. In Upper Peninsula Michigan, gray wolves eat, besides white-tailed deer, shrews of the genus Sorex, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, deer mice, meadow voles, meadow jumping mice, ruffed grouse, crayfish, and grass. On Isle Royale, where there are no white-tailed deer, Mech and Peterson and Skelton found preferences to be moose, followed by beaver (especially in summer), and then snowshoe hare, red squirrel, deer mice, red fox, unidentified birds, and grass. Scats from other areas of the Upper Great Lakes Region revealed evidence of the eastern cottontail, woodchuck, eastern chipmunk, flying squirrel, southern red-backed vole, southern bog lemming, muskrat, woodland jumping mouse, porcupine, coyote, black bear, raccoon, wolverine, June beetle, and fruits and seeds of assorted plants.

Key Components of Habitat: Habitat quality for principal prey species, particularly large ungulates, has major influence on wolf distribution and density.

Management Actions to Enhance or Maintain Habitat Quality: Management activities directed at maintaining prey populations will influence wolf habitat quality.

Habitat: As the historical distribution shows, wolves were not restricted to specific-habitats. Wolves ranged from oak savanna habitats of Mexico through prairie in the Great Plains, and through the Rocky Mountains and the boreal forest and tundra regions within the United States and Canada. The presence of wolves in an area is dictated by the availability of habitat for its prey species. Availability of suitable habitat for denning is only of secondary importance.

Dens are generally located in sites with good drainage. Extensive trail systems lead to the dens and radiate in different directions. Other forms of dens recorded in the literature are rock crevices, beaver lodges, hollow logs, and over-turned stumps. In forested areas dens are usually located within 1,600 feet of water bodies on elevated knolls and often in trembling aspen stands. Suitable denning sites can be a limiting factor in some tundra regions where dens are often dug in eskers (ridges of sand and gravel); in most of the cases, wolves choose vegetated sites that provide soil stability. Caribou calving grounds are generally in areas not suited for wolf dens. Dens are often used year after year; in Jasper National Park one den was used by wolves eight times during a 15 year period. It is not uncommon for several dens to be in one general area.

Home Ranges: Wolves established in areas with dispersed prey populations occupy well-defined home ranges - termed territories, as neighboring packs are excluded. Possibly a different or modified land tenure system is present in wolf populations preying on a mobile prey base such as barren ground caribou.