Wolves are the ancestors of all domestic dogs. They are the largest member of the canid, or dog, family. They are endangered animals. They used to live almost everywhere in North America, Asia, and Europe but their range has been greatly reduced. Now they live mostly in the extreme northern United States, Canada, and Alaska, with some scattered populations left in Europe and some reintroduced populations in the American southwest and, notably, in Yellowstone National Park.
Wolves live in family groups called packs. In each pack there is usually a mother wolf and a father wolf and their offspring from various years, but because young wolves travel between packs sometimes it is not always that simple. The mother wolf and father wolf are usually the only wolves in a pack that have a litter. They are called the alpha male and the alpha female. (Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. "Alpha" male and female means that they are the "first", or most important, male and female wolves in the pack.)
Wolves eat meat to survive. Animals that do this are called carnivores. Wolves usually catch bigger animals like deer, elk, moose and bison, but will eat smaller animals like rats, rabbits, beavers, and birds if they can catch them. The alpha male and female do not always eat first at a kill. Usually the hungriest animal eats first. It all depends on the personalities of the individual wolves. If a wolf has extra meat it will bury, or "cache" (pronounced "cash") it for later. Wolves feed their young by carrying chewed-up food in their stomachs and throwing up, or "regurgitating", the food for the pups when they come back to the den.
Wolves have only one breeding season per year -- in the winter. They have their puppies in late April or early May. They have their puppies in an underground hole, or den. There are usually four to six puppies in a litter. The puppies grow up fast and are their adult size by the end of their first winter. They are grown up by the time they are two years old.
Wolves are predators but they are not dangerous to people unless people feed them. Normally wolves are very afraid of people and run away when people approach. If people feed a wolf it will become used to having humans around and then it may come very close. That might sound like fun but wolves do not speak the same language that people do and there are often misunderstandings. Since wolves speak with their teeth that can hurt! Please do not feed any wild animal because when wild animals and humans have misunderstandings it is always the wild animal that loses.