Alaska is home to the largest remaining population of gray wolves in the United States. Some 7,000 to 9,000 wolves roam the state in habitats as diverse as barren arctic tundra and lush temperate rainforest.
Alaska’s wolves play an essential role in maintaining healthy prey populations and biodiversity in their ecosystems. They are also vital to the state’s tourism economy: People from all over the world come to Alaska for the opportunity to see a wild wolf. Wolves are highly intelligent and social animals that communicate with one another using a variety of sounds, facial expressions, postures and rituals. They live in close-knit family groups, or packs, led by an alpha male and female. Pack members have well-defined roles that include participation in the care of the young. Each pack has a home range of approximately 600 square miles and can travel up to 100 miles daily. Gray wolves are not necessarily gray; shades of black, white, brown and tan are common. Adults usually weigh 85 to 115 pounds. In Alaska, wolves feed primarily on moose, caribou, Dall sheep, beavers and rodents.
General
An evergreen ground cover.
Ecology
Grows in diverse habitats from dry roadside slopes to acid-peat bogs, and from mature spruce-hardwood forests to exposed arctic and alpine tundra. It grows in dense mats, 8 to 12 inches (20–30 cm) tall in deep shady forests but also forms ground-hugging mats scattered among the rocks of exposed alpine outcrops. Fruit is most abundant in exposed sites that have acid soils with a high organic matter content.