Somehow this wolf survives…

Time has taken its toll on this old lone wolf who has wandered our area by himself for the past 3 years (footage from this past winter). He looks battered and weather from an intense and rugged lifestyle.
Aside from just being old, the wolf has a significant limp because he is missing his two front right toes. You can see this in the first sequence well.We don’t know how that injury happened.

How a wolf in this condition survives year after year is certainly intriguing. In particular, how he keeps himself fed is fascinating because it is hard to imagine him chasing down deer by himself but possible he is capable of it.

We suspect he is likely an expert scavenger, finding morsels of food here and there, but can a wolf like this persist just by scavenging all year? More specifically, is there enough food lying around on the forest floor year round for a wolf to exist solely on scavenging? Seems hard to imagine but perhaps.

Anyway, many years ago, we captured this wolf on camera once or twice when he was part of a pack that lived just outside of our study area. The pack made a few forays into our area which is when we observed him. At that time, the wolf was in his prime, though he still had the distinctive largely white face, and appeared to be the breeding male of that pack.

But such times would not last for this fella. And now after many years on his own, it seems this wolf likely doesn’t have many years left. “Time the conqueror”, as Jackson Browne put it, has taken its toll.

Written by Voyageurs Wolf Project