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Marathon runners
Although the above-noted speed is not super fast for a top predator (a cheetah can travel at up to 75 mph in short bursts), wolves are ultra marathon endurance hunters. They have been known to track and trace their prey for hours well into the night. And they have the added bonus of a high IQ and excellent sense of hearing and smell, all of which they put to good use in rounding up their next meal.

Like many apex predators, wolves play important ecological roles in their habitats. A widely cited example occurred about a century ago in Yellowstone National Park, where native gray wolves were eliminated by 1920. Initially viewed as a benefit, the loss of wolves lost its luster as the park's elk population exploded.

Without wolves to reduce their numbers or chase them away from prime feeding areas, Yellowstone's growing elk herds began to feast unsustainably. They ate young aspen trees too quickly for groves to regenerate, devoured food sources needed by other species, and stripped important vegetation along the banks of streams and wetlands, increasing erosion.

Wolves do howl at night, but contrary to popular belief, these soulful calls have nothing to do with the moon. They convey long-distance messages to other wolves, who may be able to hear them from up to 10 miles away. Howling can help wolves assemble their pack, locate missing pack members, or defend territory, among other purposes.

Adult gray wolves can survive on their own, and may need to for a while after leaving their birth packs. Wolves are highly social, however, and often mate for life once they do find a partner. This marks the beginning of a new wolf pack, or nuclear family, the basic social unit for wolves.

Both gray and red wolves breed once per year in late winter or early spring, and both have a gestation period of about 63 days. They generally have four to six pups in a litter, which are born blind, deaf, and heavily dependent on their mother. Wolf pups are cared for by all members of the pack, though, including their parents and older siblings. They develop quickly, exploring outside the den after three weeks and growing to nearly adult size within six months. Wolves reach maturity at 10 months, but may stay with their parents for a few years before moving out.

The now-extinct dire wolf was common across North America until about 13,000 years ago, when much of the continent’s megafauna vanished amid natural climate changes. Dire wolves were comparable in size to today’s largest gray wolves, but they had bone-crushing jaws and may have focused on big prey like horses, bison, ground sloths, and mastodons.