Species of the Week: The Grey Wolf

So I decided that every Sunday I will be posting a species of the week. I will give about five to ten facts for each species. If you have a species that you want featured then please add it to the comments.

Species of the Week:

Grey Wolf(Canis lupus)

1. The wolf's can be found in most of the Northern Hemisphere. It is dominant towards the North, but can also be found in Italy, Greece and France.
2. Wolves tend to form packs from 2 individuals to about around 5-10.
3. The largest pack recorded is the Druid Pack in Yellowstone National Park which had 37 wolves in it at one time.
4. Despite their reputation, there have been around thirteen wolf attacks recorded in the 21^st century
5. Wolf territories will change depending on prey availability but the average is deemed to be 35km²
6. Wolves usually hunt large mammals such as deer, bighorn sheep, moose, elk and bison although they often hunt smaller mammals as well such as rodents.
7. Some wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest have been documented catching and eating salmon.
8. Wolves mate in January-February.
9. Gestation period lasts around 60-63 days and around 4-6 pups are born.
10. The best season to observe wolves is in winter where snow tracks are easier to spot and the pack is usually more active in hunting.

De-extinction

Lately there are a lot of articles and talks going on about using DNA to bring animals back from extinction. Although most magazines and websites have actually covered this subject and I think they did a better job at it I would however like to give my opinion about the subject.

The experience of witnessing an animal that has been extinct for thousands of years will very likely be a mixture of curiosity and excitement. The things we can learn from studying a mammoth or a saber toothed cat will shed light on evolutionary research and behavioral research as well all sort of other researches. In addition to that conservation efforts may be helped tremendously by providing a viable population for struggling species. In these aspects then cloning and reproducing an extinct species is interesting. But of course there is the other side of the coin.

To recreate a species then a surrogate mother will be needed. In the case of a mammoth then an elephant is likely to carry the embryo and then give birth to the baby mammoth. If that's the case, given our knowledge of environmental and behavioral changes then how can we be sure that what we have is a mammoth the way that they used to exist. It might look like a mammoth but will it behave like a mammoth?

In addition to that some species' habitat is completely changes. Talks about reintroducing mammoth to the Siberian wilderness in order to recreate the pristine habitat the existed are just nonsense in my head. Firstly the mammoth has no predators. It is unlikely that the big cats or wolves will be able to bring down enough mammoth to affect the population. I mean sure the African elephant has no top predators either but we know that. The mammoth co-existed with direwolves, saber tooth cats and all sort of large carnivores and we don't have enough evidence to suggest that these predators did not hunt mammoth.

Another point is animal welfare. Most of the animals brought back so far have suffered for a brief while with lung or heart problems until they finally died. There is little doubt that this won't happen again. It is a natural process of learning from our mistakes. However how many animals must suffer and die in order to de-extinct a species that probably went extinct for a reason.

Finally, despite it being a potential conservation tool, it is also likely that some people may not be so concern with conservation now that species can be brought back. Who cares if there are less than 400 Scottish wildcats. All we need is some DNA, reproduce them and reintroduce them. Unfortunately this method won't work since the habitat needs to be replicated as well. However I feel that the feeling of urgency to take action for certain species may be lost if people know that species may be brought back from extinction.

Overall, despite cloning species, bringing species back from extinction, the certain practice should be put in the back of the shelves. We need to focus and conserve whatever environment we have now, allow that to flourish before we consider reproducing an animal that went extinct.