The gray wolf is the only remaining wild ancestor of the dog.

About the overall size of a German Shepherd, the gray wolf has a larger head, narrower chest, longer legs, straighter tail and bigger paws. It’s fur can be a mottled gray with browns, reds and blacks. That’s what a gray wolf looks like.

Wait! I just saw one last week.

I was driving to an early meeting. It was dark, about 5:30 am, no other cars on the road, in the middle of the City of Dallas. I drove down a hill and stopped at the stop sign at Turtle Creek, which is a flowing urban stream with landscaped vegetation connected to the Trinity River Basin only about 2 miles away. I looked up and this large long-legged dog-like animal ambled across the intersection right in front of me, only about 50 feet away. Head slightly down, it looked over, but did not rush its steps. The glance struck me as intelligent. I remember thinking that’s a smart animal. I turned my bright headlamps on and watched as the creature disappeared into the bushes by the water. I thought that was a tall coyote, a really tall coyote.

That was no coyote. I just looked at a picture of a gray wolf on the web. What I encountered was a wolf, a gray wolf looking very comfortable in the groomed confines of Dallas, Texas.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that the gray wolf population has recovered to the extent that the wolf has been removed from the protections of the federal Endangered Species Act. In 1973, the gray wolf was listed as endangered because at that time only a few hundred were left in the lower 48 states. 300 years of trapping and hunting had nearly exterminated the gray wolf. Congress said enough and put in place the protections of the Endangered Species Act to prevent the extinction of the species. Today, there are an estimated 6,000 wolves in the contiguous United States and 7,700 to 11,200 in Alaska. The wolf populations have been deemed to be “recovered” and, as such, are no longer covered by the Act. Without the federal protections, the individual states can now decide what happens to the gray wolf.

On October 1st, Wyoming will join the growing list of states to legalize wolf hunting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is still exercising some oversight. That agency has required Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to maintain 450 adults and 45 breeding pairs. The last statistics show 1,774 adults and 109 pairs in those western states. Surprising observers, Montana’s wolf population actually rose 15 percent after last year’s hunting season – if the numbers can be trusted. This season, Montana has decided to allow unlimited hunting between September 1st and February 28th and trapping for the fist time in a very long time.

In summary, the gray wolf is no longer endangered – it is now in danger. In many states, it is already not safe to be an individual wolf or wolf pair, and it will soon be even more difficult and dangerous for the species to maintain its existence. The gray wolf is said to be an apex predator, with only lions, tigers and humans posing a serious threat. If I were a gray wolf, I’d stop worrying about the lions and tigers. We are now again its greatest threat.

It was scary seeing that wolf walk across the road. In my car, I stayed put because I was protected in a cage of metal. If I had been walking, which I do very close by, I would have turned and walked quickly away in the other direction. They are wild animals and should be afforded the respect and distance wild animals deserve. One almost in my backyard may indicate a healthy and growing wolf population, but it reminds of an acronym, NIMBY, which means “not in my backyard,” please.

It is said that the gray wolf is the most researched of the animals, and the one about whom more books have been written than any other. The close kinship of the wolf to the dog may cause us to regard it with a certain guarded fascination and even fondness. In writings and thoughts, we may wish and even feel a closeness to the wolf and its ways.

But, alas, it is still a wolf and not a pet, and for that difference, it must indeed be wary.

Best seen in frame and read in word, not caught in view across the way.

Gray wolf your steps to watch, tread warily, warily tread indeed.

And If you would, with us and you, go there.

Please go, gray wolf, with care,

Grandpa Jim

About 9 am last Sunday morning, September 23rd, Mei Xiang honked in distress.

Mei Xiang is a female giant panda who lives at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She is 14 years old and she weighs about 216 pounds (100 kilograms). Less than 7 full days before on Sunday night, September 16th, around 10:30 pm, Mei Xiang gave birth to a baby panda cub weighing just 4 ounces (113 grams). Though tiny in size, the little one was surprisingly loud of voice, emitting a high-pitched squeal as it cradled in different positions in its mother’s arms.

A week later, hearing Mei Xiang’s distress call, zoo keepers rushed to help. Nothing could be done, the small panda had stopped breathing and could not be revived. One visitor to the zoo had referred to the baby panda as “a little piece of hope.” And so the little one was, and many mourn the passing.

The giant panda is itself endangered as a species. In the wild, they remain in a few small pockets of bamboo forest in remote mountainous regions near Chengdu, China. They eat the bamboo, and they eat a bunch of bamboo. A munching adults eats 12 hours a day, plucking about 28 pounds of bamboo before drifting off to sleep and dreams of more bamboo in the morning. Only about 1,000 to 2,000 pandas remain in their wild homelands. Zoos around the world offer lodging to about 100 more. In their zoo homes, cubs are few and many do not live long. A newborn is pink, with its eyes closed and no teeth showing. At birth, it is very small, only about the size of a butter stick. The babes need a lot of care. In about a month, the distinctive black and white pattern of the fur and the emerging personality show through. Mei Xiang’s baby never had a chance to show us what she would look like and who she would be.

Mei Xiang has started eating again. She slept Sunday night cradling a small plastic toy. Mei Xiang’s other child, a boy named Tai Shan, is 7-years old. He lives in China. Mom is still young. Pandas can live into their mid-30’s. Mei Xiang and her partner Tian Tian could have another cub. The world is waiting. Let’s hope.

May hope lift your spirit and help us look forward to tomorrow,

Grandpa Jim