Below you will find a rough draft of a research paper I wrote some time ago. I am currently updating it and will be reworking this page to make it more accessible in an ordered manner. When completed, credits will be given in a separate page. Enjoy and I hope what you find here will help you to understand an animal I hold dear.
Picture, a person stands at a forest pond and watches some ducks swimming. On the horizon, the sun has set and the moon is rising. Out of the distance a song interrupts the silence, awakening all the animals of the forest. The person looks around for the source of such an eerie song. Through a thinning section of trees the person sees a dog-like creature standing on a small rise. As if drawn by the unknown attention, the wolf sings another long, solitary note and then vanishes into the distance. The person stands and stares at the now empty space as if in a trance. This occurrence should not be as rare as this implies, but unfortunately it is. Wolves are a troubled species. If something is not done to help these creatures, a scene like this one may never happen to another human. Due to human activities, so many of the earth's creatures are in jeopardy of becoming extinct. Among these is the wolf.
An unusual fact is that various species had become extinct even before people appeared on Earth. The only difference between that time and today is that in the past, however, other species developed and replaced those that died off, and the total variety of life did not diminish. Whereas today, human activities kill off species with no hope for their replacement, and so the variety of life decreases. Already the rate of extinction has escalated to four hundred times what it was in recent geologic periods. Some species of plants and animals have become extinct because of natural causes. However, in modern times, the activities of human beings and human population growth have increased the danger for wildlife. Due to this fact, some species have declined greatly in numbers and others are now extinct. Thus, human beings created the need for conservation.
The first wildlife conservation probably occurred among prehistoric peoples. These peoples may have limited their hunting to preserve the supply of wild animals they needed for food. Even rulers of ancient civilizations setup the first game reserves and medieval European kings continued this practice. Since about 1600, many kinds of wildlife have become extinct. Beginning in the late 1800s, growing concern for the world's vanishing wildlife has led to increased conservation action. The governments of many nations have passed protective laws and set aside national parks and other reserves for wildlife.
When studying species, wildlife biologists use three main classifications for animals and plants that face possible extinction: (1) endangered, (2) threatened, and (3) rare. An explanation of these might include that endangered species face the most serious threat of extinction. Also included may be that threatened species are generally abundant in some areas, but they face serious dangers nevertheless. An example would be that of the gray wolf, a threatened species, yet plentiful in some places. Yet its overall numbers worldwide are being steadily reduced by hunting, trapping, and poisoning. The final group contains those animals that have small populations.
The first endangered species legislation in the United States was a 1966 bill that called for saving U.S. wildlife, but provided few powers to do so. Three years later, the Department of the Interior was asked to add species imperiled worldwide to the endangered list. The new international focus was partly responsible for the formation of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This organization aids hard pressed creatures by controlling the traffic in items such as leopard pelts and elephant ivory that cost the animals their lives.