And now the representative of Eurasia and the most common species of wolf in the world - the Eurasian wolf.
Eurasian wolf
The size of Eurasian wolves is subject to geographic variation, with animals in Russia and Scandinavia being larger than those residing in Western Europe, having been compared by Theodore Roosevelt to the large wolves of north-western Montana and Washington. Adults from Russia measure 105–160 cm (41–63 in) in length, 80–85 cm (31–33 in) in shoulder height, and weigh on average 32–50 kg (71–110 lb), with a maximum weight of 69–80 kg (152–176 lb). The largest on record was killed after World War II in the Kobelyakski Area of the Poltavskij Region in the Ukrainian SSR, and weighed 86 kg (190 lb). Larger weights of 92–96 kg (203–212 lb) have been reported in Ukraine, though the circumstances under which these latter animals were weighed are not known. Although similar in size to central Russian wolves, Swedish and Norwegian wolves tend to be more heavily built with deeper shoulders. One wolf killed in Romania was recorded to have weighed 72 kg (159 lb).
Eurasian wolves are very social animals and despite the decrease in their territory, they form packs, although smaller than in North America. Social behavior seems to vary from region to region, exemplified by wolves living in the Carpathians tending to hunt alone. Males and females mate between January and March. There are usually six cubs in a litter, born seven weeks later in a den dug among bushes or rocks. The male brings food to the den either by simply dragging it or by swallowing it whole and then regurgitating it back to feed others. While the cubs are growing up, the mother and other members of the pack help them feed.
The diet of European wolves varies greatly depending on their habitat. Usually they prey on medium-sized ungulates like mouflon, chamois, saiga, wild boar, red deer, european roe deer, livestock. Wolves will also eat smaller prey like frogs and hares. In Europe, their largest prey is the bison, and in Asia, the yak.
Due to the increasing shortage of natural prey, sometimes wolves are forced to abandon their usual pack hunting and rummage through food waste around villages and farms. Many rural settlements have open landfills where waste from local slaughterhouses is dumped. Wolves feed there along with wild or stray dogs.
Distribution
Initially spread across most of Eurasia, limited in the south by the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Kopetdag, Caucasus, Black Sea, and Alps, and limited in the north between 60° and 70° N, this caused the wolf population to retreat back from much of Western Europe and eastern China , which continued to exist mainly in Central Asia.
Currently, the Eurasian wolf has the largest distribution of all subspecies of the wolf and lives mainly in Europe and Asia, extending through Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, China, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the Himalayan mountains.
Conservation
As of 2017, the IUCN Red List still recorded the grey wolf as regionally extinct in eight European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Since then, wolves have returned to and, in some cases, firmly established themselves in all of those countries, except for the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.
The recovery of European wolf populations began after the 1950s, when traditional pastoral and rural economies declined and thus removed the need to heavily persecute wolves. By the 1980s, small and isolated wolf populations expanded in the wake of decreased human density in rural areas and the recovery of wild prey populations.
Wolf populations throughout Northern and Central Asia are largely unknown, but are estimated in the hundreds of thousands based on annual harvests. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, continent-wide extermination of wolves has ceased, and wolf populations have increased to about 25,000–30,000 animals throughout the former Soviet Union, an increase of about 150%.
The Eurasian wolf and the Italian wolf are legally protected in most European countries, either by listing in the annexes of the EU-FHH Directive or by the Bern Convention or both, depending on whether a country is a signatory of the Bern Convention or not.
That's it for today. See you all next time.
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