Timber Wolf Sightings, Balsam Township, Itasca County, MN

The wolf (Canis lupus), also known as the gray wolf, timber wolf, western wolf and its other subspecies is a canine native to the wilderness and remote areas of Eurasia and North America. It is the largest extant member of its family, with males averaging 43–45 kg (95–99 lb) and females 36–38.5 kg (79–85 lb). Like the red wolf, it is distinguished from other Canis species by its larger size and less pointed features, particularly on the ears and muzzle.  Its winter fur is long and bushy and predominantly a mottled gray in color, although nearly pure white, red, and brown to black also occur.

Originally, the gray wolf occupied all of North America north of about 20°N. It occurred all over the mainland, save for the southeastern United States, California west of the Sierra Nevada, and the tropical and subtropical areas of Mexico. Large continental islands occupied by wolves included Newfoundland, Vancouver Island, southeastern Alaskan islands, and throughout the Arctic Archipelago and Greenland. While Lohr and Ballard postulated that the gray wolf had never been present on Prince Edward Island, analysis of references to the island's native fauna in unpublished and published historical records has found that gray wolves were resident there at the time of the first French settlement in 1720. In his November 6, 1721 letter to the French Minister of the Marine, Louis Denys de La Ronde reported that the island was home to wolves "of a prodigious size", and sent a wolf pelt back to France to substantiate his claim. As the island was cleared for settlement, the gray wolf population may have been extirpated, or relocated to the mainland across the winter ice: the few subsequent wolf reports date from the mid-nineteenth century and describe the creatures as transient visitors from across the Northumberland Strait.