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Gray Wolf

Canis lupus · easy

Wolves live in families. The old language of alpha males and dominance struggles came from studying unrelated captive animals thrown together; wild packs are almost always a breeding pair and their offspring of the last few years, and the structure is closer to parents and children than to a hierarchy fought over. The biologist whose early work popularised the term spent much of his later career trying to retire it.

Howling coordinates a group spread over a large territory and advertises occupancy to neighbours. Individual wolves have recognisable voices, and a pack will deliberately vary pitch so a chorus sounds like more animals than it contains.

Their ecological influence can be substantial. The return of wolves to Yellowstone changed elk behaviour, which in turn allowed willow and aspen to recover along streams — a much-cited example of a trophic cascade, though the strength of the effect is still argued over.

The grey wolf was once the most widely distributed land mammal after humans, and was exterminated across most of Europe and the contiguous United States. It has since recolonised parts of both, largely on its own, which has reopened old conflicts with livestock farming wherever it returns.

Where it lives

Worml lists the gray wolf as native to 15 countries — Canada, China, Finland, India, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye and United States. Its habitat is almost anything north of the tropics — tundra, forest, steppe, desert.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Gray Wolf is rated easy. To solve the round you need to find any 8 of its 15 listed countries. How scoring works →

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