The historic range of the gray wolf covered over two-thirds of the United States. Today gray wolves have populations in Alaska, northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, western Montana, northern Idaho, northeast Oregon, and the Yellowstone area of Wyoming. Wolves are found in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa. They tend to live in the remote wilderness, though red wolves prefer to live in swamps, coastal prairies and forests.

These dens which are mostly located in sandy soil and elevated places like hillsides, ridges, or near water. The dens are usually 1.5 to 4 meters long, they end in an enlarged chamber and they may have several entrances. Their first home is usually a den, which can be a small cave or a hole dug in the ground. It must be big enough to shelter the mother and pups from weather and protect the pups fromother animals that may want to hurt them. Packs sometimes use the same den for several years, or they may find a new den each year.

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The biome territorie gray wolves live in are tundras, woodlands, grasslands, and deserts. They were exterminated throughout most of the continent North America in the mid 1930's but common before (CITE).Gray wolves can survive in many biomes as long as food is plentiful and the climate is relatively cold. The Siberian Taiga, one of the habitats they are best suited to, is a boreal forest with long, cold winters and short summers. It covers part of northern Russia, the place where wolves are most plentiful.

In the Lower 48, wolf recovery—for all of its successes—remains precarious. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there are no more than 6,000 wolves in the continental United States, and they occupy less than 10 percent of their historic range. The largest concentrations of wolves now reside in the northern regions of the world such as Alaska, Canada and Russia.

 

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