Living with Wolves

10/19/2026

🐺 Happy Wolf Awareness Week! 🐺

This week, we’re celebrating one of nature’s most remarkable and misunderstood animals.

Wolves are more than symbols of the wild. They are devoted family members, intelligent communicators, skilled hunters, and an essential part of the ecosystems they call home. Their complex social bonds, cooperation, and resilience remind us just how much we share with these extraordinary animals.

Yet despite their ecological importance, wolves continue to face persecution, misinformation, and threats to their survival.

At Living with Wolves, we believe that understanding wolves is the first step toward protecting them. Through education, science, and storytelling, we work to replace fear with facts and inspire a future where wolves and people can coexist.

Throughout Wolf Awareness Week, we’ll be sharing stories, fascinating facts, and important conservation issues to help you better understand the true nature of wolves.

Because the more we understand wolves, the more we realize just how much we stand to lose without them.

🐾 Join us in celebrating wolves this week and help us ensure their howls continue to echo across our wild landscapes for generations to come.

Learn more: www.livingwithwolves.org

10/19/2026

Fear of wolves continues to drive dangerous misinformation and threaten their future.

In a new commentary published by WyoFile, wildlife advocate Story Warren challenges the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to remove federal protections for gray and Mexican wolves, arguing that fearmongering ignores decades of research on wolf behavior and human safety.

Despite their reputation, wolves generally avoid humans, and attacks are extraordinarily rare. Since wolf populations began recovering in the 1980s, only one human injury attributed to wolves has been reported in the Lower 48 states.

The article also challenges claims that wolves pose a widespread threat to livestock. According to USDA data cited by Warren, wolves account for just 1% of cattle and sheep losses in states where they live. Research suggests that killing wolves does not reliably prevent future conflicts, while nonlethal methods such as range riding, carcass removal, and deterrents offer alternatives.

Wolves are not the villains they are so often portrayed to be. Decisions about their future should be guided by science, not fear or political rhetoric.

Read the full commentary from WyoFile: https://wyofile.com/spreading-fear-about-wolves-never-goes-out-of-style/

Despite what the Trump administration would have us think, wolves are simply not out to get us, writes Writers on the Range contributor Story Warren.

10/16/2026

Wolves are more than population numbers. They are families. And when we lose them, we lose far more than we realize.

In a powerful new op-ed published today by Mongabay, Living with Wolves founders Jim and Jamie Dutcher reflect on what is at stake as states across the American West pursue aggressive policies to reduce wolf populations, threatening decades of hard-won conservation progress.

Drawing on their extraordinary six years living alongside the Sawtooth Pack, the Dutchers remind us that wolves are deeply social, intelligent animals whose survival depends on strong family bonds, cooperation, and knowledge passed between generations.

When wolves are killed, the consequences extend far beyond an individual animal. Families are fractured, experienced leaders and teachers are lost, and disrupted packs may become more vulnerable to the very conflicts these policies claim to address.

From Idaho and Montana to Wyoming, the Dutchers examine the troubling direction of wolf management and make the case for science-based solutions, nonlethal conflict prevention, and coexistence rather than widespread killing.

We nearly lost wolves once before. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Read Jim and Jamie’s full commentary in Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-us-states-cull-recently-restored-wolf-populations-heres-what-we-stand-to-lose-commentary/

For centuries, wolves have been cast as vicious, bloodthirsty creatures of nightmares and fairy tales, rather than as deeply social animals with an important place in nature. We wanted to understand the animal behind those stories. So, in the 1990s, we spent six years living alongside a pack of gray...

10/16/2026

What does it really mean for wolves to be considered “recovered”?

That question is at the center of a legal battle that could determine the future of federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies.

On October 13, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a dispute over whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adequately assessed the threats facing wolves before denying them federal protections. Conservation groups argue that the agency failed to fully consider wolves’ historical range, the impacts of hunting and trapping, and the consequences of state management policies.

The case comes as Montana recently acknowledged overestimating its wolf population by nearly 35%, raising further concerns about the science guiding wolf management.

The court’s decision could have significant implications for wolf recovery across the West, particularly how federal officials evaluate recovery beyond established wolf populations and whether state management practices adequately protect the species.

Read more from Flathead Beacon:

For nearly two decades, hunters, conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have fought in court over whether discrete populations of gray wolves should be listed as endangered or threatened. A case argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday could settle the qu...

10/15/2026

The “dire wolves” are turning two, but have they really been brought back from extinction?

Colossal Biosciences’ genetically engineered wolves have captured the public’s imagination, but the science behind the headlines tells a more complicated story. These animals are genetically modified gray wolves, not the resurrection of the extinct dire wolf.

In our article, The Illusion of De-Extinction: Colossal Biosciences and the Myth of the Dire Wolf, Living With Wolves examines what this project really represents, the risks of blurring the line between genetic engineering and de-extinction, and what these claims could mean for the future of wildlife conservation.

We cannot afford to let the promise of bringing back extinct species distract us from protecting the ones still here. Wild wolves today need habitat, legal protections, and science-based conservation, not the assumption that extinction is something we can simply undo.

Read the full article: https://www.livingwithwolves.org/the-illusion-of-de-extinction-colossal-biosciences-and-the-myth-of-the-dire-wolf/

Did scientists really bring back the dire wolf? Colossal’s announcement made headlines—but the truth behind their “resurrection” is more nuanced.

10/14/2026

🔥 Wolves may be using wildfires to their advantage.

New research from northeastern British Columbia suggests that wolves may be drawn to active wildfires, potentially taking advantage of fleeing prey such as moose, caribou, and beavers.

Researchers found that wolves selected areas near active fires while avoiding dangerous fire fronts and moving faster through smoky areas. The findings offer a fascinating glimpse into how these adaptable predators navigate a changing landscape, balancing potential hunting opportunities against the risks of fire.

More research is needed to determine how wildfires affect hunting success, prey behavior, and wolf survival.

🔗 Read more:

Wildfires alter the way animals such as moose, caribou and beavers behave, which may make it easier for wolves to pick them off.

10/13/2026

🌊🐺 A mysterious discovery in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest offers a glimpse into the remarkable lives of coastal wolves.

When a Pacific sleeper shark carcass washed ashore, local guide Aaron Bechard set up a camera trap, capturing wolves scavenging the unexpected meal. The footage highlights the fascinating connections between marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Living With Wolves supports research into these remarkable coastal wolves through the Haíɫzaqv Wolf and Biodiversity Project. For the past three years, we have helped fund research exploring wolf behavior, ecology, and coexistence with the Haíɫzaqv people. Recent discoveries include footage of a wild wolf using the rope attached to a crab trap to pull it ashore, behavior that may represent the first documented instance of tool use by a wild canid.

Investing in research helps deepen our understanding of wolves and the ecosystems they inhabit.

🎥 Watch the CBC News video to see these coastal wolves in action.
https://youtu.be/lyAaLAipTt0?is=ugenErlY4IlGvMZ9

🔗 Learn more about the research Living With Wolves supports: https://www.livingwithwolves.org/inside-one-of-the-worlds-most-remarkable-wolf-studies/

When a mystery carcass washes ashore in the Great Bear Rainforest, ...

10/12/2026

🐺 How do other Western states handle chronic wolf depredation?

As Colorado reconsiders its approach to wolves involved in repeated livestock attacks, other Western states offer different models:

• Washington: Considers lethal removal after 3 attacks in 30 days or 4 in 10 months, with nonlethal deterrents required.

• Oregon: Defines chronic depredation as 2 confirmed attacks in 9 months, but evaluates nonlethal efforts and other circumstances before removing wolves.

• Idaho: Favors lethal removal while wolf populations remain above management goals. Nonlethal deterrents aren’t required first.

• Montana: Allows targeted removal of wolves with a history of livestock predation, considering each situation individually.

• Colorado: Is temporarily suspending its previous guidelines of 3 confirmed attacks in 30 days while reviewing its approach.

The challenge remains protecting livestock while giving recovering wolf populations a chance to thrive.

At the end of September, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said it was taking a step back from its current approach to killing wolves involved in livestock attacks as the state’s gray wolf population faces threats...

10/09/2026

A future for wolves begins with you. 🐺❤️

Support Living With Wolves today: https://www.livingwithwolves.org/donate/

10/08/2026

Seven endangered Red Wolves are set to travel from the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, to the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York, on October 13. Pilots To The Rescue will fly the wolves to New Jersey, where they will continue by ground transport to their new home. The transfer is part of ongoing efforts to support the care and conservation of one of North America’s most endangered canids. 🐺❤️

Sabine Mac On Tuesday, October 13, Pilots To The Rescue will fly seven endangered Red Wolves from Raleigh Regional Airport at Person County to New Jersey where they will be driven to their final destination. The wolves are being transported from the Museum of Life and Sciences in Durham, NC to the W...