They were hunted and killed until they almost disappeared. Now these fierce and important creatures are coming back.
Learning Objective: Students will learn how and why wolves were brought back from near-extinction in the U.S. This narrative nonfiction feature will build domain-specific vocabulary and help students identify examples of cause and effect.
Imagine you are a gray wolf.
You are one of the most feared predators on Earth. Your teeth can
rip through skin and crush bone. Animals run when they see you. Even ones bigger than you are scared of you.
But there is one creature that fills your heart with fear.
Humans.
For hundreds of years, humans in America have hunted your kind. They have poisoned you. They have trapped you. They have almost made you extinct.
And they aren’t done with you yet.
The Big Bad Wolf
©Stefan Meyers/Ardea/Biosphoto
Wolf Pack
Wolves travel in groups called packs. The size of a pack can range from 2 wolves to 36—but is usually around 6. These packs hunt and play together.
Before the 1800s, as many as 2 million wolves lived in America. They were mainly in New England, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains.
But then pioneers moved to these parts of the U.S. Pioneers are people who set up homes in a new area. They were scared of wolves. They told their kids stories in which wolves ate humans. Americans began to hate wolves.
That’s when wolves began dying out.
Humans shot them with guns. They tricked them into eating poisoned meat. They caught them in sharp metal traps. They turned their fur into hats and coats.
By the 1920s, there were almost no wolves left in most of America.
Not a Monster
Fifty years later, many people started to realize that wolves are not monsters. Wolves are actually afraid of humans. People also began to understand that Earth needs wolves. Why?
As wolves began to disappear, the number of elk grew in parts of the U.S. That’s because wolves weren’t there to hunt them.
These elk gobbled up trees and grasses that other animals needed to survive. Without these trees and grasses, birds couldn’t build their nests. Beavers couldn’t build their dams.
Wolves are what are called apex predators. These are animals at the very top of the food chain. They hunt other animals, but nothing hunts them. Apex predators are needed where they live. Without apex predators, other animals and plants are out of balance.
Killing off wolves was a terrible mistake. So the U.S. government passed a law that protected them from being hunted.
Set Free
©Martin W. Grosnick/Ardea/Biosphoto
Not a Necklace
This gray wolf is wearing a radio collar around its neck. Scientists put these collars on wolves so they can track them and study them.
In the 1990s, wildlife experts came up with a bold plan.
They decided to bring wolves back.
The experts caught 31 gray wolves in Canada. These wolves were then set free in Yellowstone National Park. This is a park with more than 2 million acres in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Scientists hoped that these wolves would have babies, called pups. Then they would form new packs. Packs are groups of wolves that live and hunt together.
The plan worked. In fact, it was a huge success. In less than two decades, there were 1,600 wolves living in the Yellowstone area.
Today, the government says that wolves are no longer in danger of becoming extinct.
A Fierce Debate
Many Americans are thrilled to have wolves back. Thousands of people travel to see them in Yellowstone National Park every year. And wolves are helping to fix the ecosystem in Yellowstone too. There are fewer elk now. And those elk are healthier too.
But not everyone is happy about wolves coming back. Some hunters complain that wolves hunt the same animals they do. Some farmers are angry because wolves kill their cows. A few states have decided to allow people to once again hunt wolves outside national parks.
Now experts are working hard to make sure that wolves do not disappear again. They are raising wolves in conservation centers. Then they release them into the wild. These centers also have programs that teach people how important wolves are.
At Peace With People
Debbie Steinhausser/Shutterstock.com
Family Time
Between 5 and 10 weeks old, wolf pups become playful and need less help from Mom.
Imagine again that you are a mighty gray wolf.
You are trotting through the snow with your pack. You do not know what is about to happen. But you have a feeling that you are in danger.
Suddenly, you sense that a human is nearby.
You become filled with fear. You run across the snow. But you aren’t fast enough.
A man has something aimed at you.
Click.
You fall.
Everything goes dark.
But you are not dead. This human did not come to kill you. He came to help you. It was not a bullet that hit you. It was a dart. The dart was full of a drug that has put you into a deep sleep.
The man rushes to your side. He is an expert on wolves. He studies and cares for them. He and his team weigh you. They measure your paws. They record notes in their journals. Everything they learn will help them better understand you and your kind.
Of course, you don’t know any of this. You are still fast asleep.
When you wake up, the man is gone. You stand and lift your head high.
Then you let out a long howl.
In the distance, your pack howls back at you.
They are waiting for you to come home.
Can't Miss Teaching Extras
Meet this adorable wolf duo from the Wolf Conservation Center in New York! This 45-second video explains how keeping pups clean strengthens the bond between a wolf mom and her pup.
Just like babies have different kinds of cries, wolves have different howls. Play for your students these audio clips of howls, each serving a different purpose.
Cuteness overload! Check out this almost 4-minute video of two wolf pups playing in the wild. This is a great way to show that wolves aren’t always scary.
This story can lead to earth science and geography lessons about Yellowstone National Park. This list of cool questions visitors ask Yellowstone Park rangers will make your lesson easier and even more inspiring.
More About the Article
Content-Area Connections
Science: Ecology, environment
Social studies: U.S. history
Social-emotional learning: Responsible decision-making (solving problems, analyzing situations)
Key Skills
Cause and effect, author’s craft, main idea, key detail, summarizing, compare and contrast
1. PREPARING TO READ
Watch a Video/Preview Text Features (25 minutes)
Introduce Vocabulary (15 minutes)
Set a Purpose for Reading (5 minutes)
2. CLOSE READING
Reading and Unpacking the Text
Close-Reading Questions (30 minutes)
Critical-Thinking Question (10 minutes)
3. SKILL BUILDING
Distribute our Cause and Effect Activity. Have students work in pairs to complete it.
Call on a student to read the assignment in the Think and Write box on page 9. Have students find details to include in their letters. Remind them to use the pronouns I and my as they write.
Differentiate and Customize
Ask pairs of students to look for important events in the decline of the gray wolf and the struggle to reverse it. Have students create a timeline of events, from before the 1800s to today. Students can discuss their timelines in small groups.
Read the lower-Lexile article aloud as students follow along. Ask them to underline details that explain what happens when the number of gray wolves increases and decreases. Write their answers under the headings “Cause” and “Effect” on the board.
Have students read the story aloud and find details that describe the efforts to save the gray wolf from extinction. Ask them to write three questions for the wildlife experts who have helped the wolves.
Ask students to write an opinion essay about the increase in the number of gray wolves from the perspective of one of the following: a tourist who observed the wolves in Yellowstone National Park; a hunter or farmer; a wildlife expert.
