Gray wolves have always played a vital role in the environment and continue to be beautiful creatures that inhabit our world. However, in the lower 48 states these beautiful animals are on the extinction list under the federal and California Endangered Species Act. Gray wolves are the largest member of the dog family. Similar to most wolves they enjoy living every aspect of their life as a pack, from hunting to living and protecting each other they work together. They also roam large distances throughout their lives and this was one of the larger issues combating their lives in the ever increasing population of the United States and California. One major issue with gray wolves and their packs in California is that they need food, namely meat, to survive. For example, they would constantly and efficiently hunt cattle farmers cows and essentially take their money by killing their cows. This led to many farmers taking action against the gray wolves by hunting them to get them off of their land and that led the gray wolf population to be where it is today as an endangered species. Gray wolves are an important part of the ecosystem because they help curb the population of animals like deer and different rodents such as rabbits. It is important to curb the population of these species naturally because if the deer or rabbit population grows to high, as it has been lately, there will be an increasing lack of food for them and places for them to live and they will invade into lands where there is not enough resources to feed the populations. Gray wolves have been slowly reintroduced into California and the surrounding areas in an effort to increase their population and get them out of the endangered status.(WC:297)
