Timber Wolf Size report

Canis lupus lycaon, commonly known as the eastern timber wolf, was the first gray wolf subspecies to be identified in North America in 1775, and genetic confirmation was not performed until 1999. There have been many names, including Great Lakes wolf, Eastern timber wolf, Algonquin wolf, or deer wolf, but the most widely accepted is the eastern timber wolf.

The timber wolf is one of the subspecies of the gray wolf and has a variety of coat colors ranging from white to gray and brown to black. It is the most widely distributed wolf in North America and was once found in the United States from Minnesota to Florida, but now remains only in southeastern Canada. The Canadian timber wolves are the largest wild wolves in the world.

The eastern timber wolves hunt and travel in packs like all other breeds. Their shelters will always be near a water source. Their pack's territory may cover anywhere from 20 to 120 square miles. Read the following post to find out more interesting facts about these large wolves.

Basic Descriptions of the Timber Wolf

Physical characteristics: The Michigan Department of Natural resources describes the eastern (timber) wolf as "smaller and less stocky than the gray wolf." Hybridization is common between the coyote and the eastern timber wolf. The eastern timber wolf and the gray wolf share most wolf-related physical characteristics other than size and the timber wolf's slightly lighter build. Eastern timber wolves come in various colors, from white to grey and from brown to black. They often have a reddish-brown muzzle and lower legs with white, grey, and black on their back.

Diet

The timber wolf feeds mainly on large animals such as white-tailed deer, moose, elk, and caribou in the winter. Other times of the year, its diet will include smaller animals such as rodents and fish. They are cunning and ferocious by nature, good at teamwork, and are powerful killers in nature. It is very adaptable and can live in forests, tundra, plains, and mountains. They have large territories of about 150 km in which they roam for food as they can eat as much as 20 kg (44 lbs) a day.

Breeding

Eastern timber wolves breed in late winter. Like most other wolves, usually just the dominant male and female of the pack breed. It helps keep up the strength of the pack. A liter of about five or six pups is born two months later in a den. The life spans of wild wolves vary dramatically. Although the average lifespan of the timber wolf is between 6 and 8 years, many will die sooner.

Timber Wolf Average Size

• With the average male timberwolves weighing 30 kg (67 lbs), while the average female weighs 23.9 kg (53 lbs), exceptionally large specimens have measured 175 lbs.
  
• From the tip of the nose to the end of their tail, they measure about 1.6 m (5.5 ft) in length and 63 to 91 cm (25 to 36 in) in height, they dwarf most of their kin.

The timber wolves play an apex predator role in North American forests. These eastern timber wolves keep these large herbivore populations in balance, keeping the overall forest health and growth rate in check. In the early 1900s, the species was on the brink of extinction. Today, they survive in only 3 percent of their original habitat in the United States. Over the years, Canada and the United States continued efforts to protect, conserve, and keep eastern timber wolves on the endangered species list.