How The Human Race Effect Wolves
Ecology
Growing Human Population
As the human population grows the wolf is coming into conflict with people in areas where they have not been seen before. So as our (the human race) population has grown, the amount of wilderness where wolves can live has gotten smaller.Wolves need land, away from humans, to live and raise their families, and lots of it. The wolf has been exterminated in most of Europe in the past four centuries. pockets of wolves survive in mountainous Spain, France, Italy, and forested Finland. When man and wolf come into conflict usually the wolf will loose.
The Wolf today - Conflicts and Compromise
Today the wolf is starting to come back, but as its population increases so does the conflicts with humans. Some want the wolf destroyed, while others think wolves should never be killed, the answer may be somewhere in the middle of these positions.To save the wolf there may have to be a few problem wolves destroyed to save the species as a whole.
Wolves Are Imortant to Most Cultures
Over the centuries, the wolf has come to mean different things to different cultures. Revered as a deity, or reviled as a devil, the wolf has often paid with its life for crimes it didn't commit.
Why Are Wolves Endangered
There are many reasons why wolves are endangered, most people used to be afraid of wolves and thought they were dangerous to humans. For a long time, people would get money for bringing in a dead wolf. This was called bounty hunting. People also use to poison wolves, poisoning is probably the main reason there are so few wolves left today. (between 1850 and 1900 more that a million wolves were killed. In 1907 the call was given for the total extinction of the species.) People also use to poison wolves, poisoning is probably the main reason there are so few wolves left today.