David Lewandowski said:
>>I know the wolf is a great predator but how much of threat can they
really be considering that their numbers are extremely low in comparison to
the late 1800's. Do you have any idea  what the current population is? I
was curious because what I see on Discovery shows a very sparse population.

I recently saw a fascinating video on wolves in Spain.  It showed that wolf
populations are dwindling worldwide; they are at an alltime low and many
risk extinction.  Unfortunately, many of the deaths of farm animals blamed
on wolves are actually caused by dogs.  If one wolf kills a farm animal,
people go out and exterminate any wolves they see.  And yet, if a dog does
the same, few people go out shooting all the dogs they see.  The video
pointed out what an "underdog" the wolf is and how much adversity the wolf
has been met with in the past couple hundred years.  It was interesting.

It seems that as human populations expand, they squeeze out the areas in
which the wolves lived and hunted.  When the natural diet of the wolves
shrinks, they may end up turning to sheep, for example, for food.  One
solution posed is to help increase the population of the wolves' natural
prey, so that they don't have to resort to captive animals.  Anyway, you
might want to check with your library to see if they have some videos on
wolves.

Rachel