Wolves once existed throughout much of Europe. Conflicts with humans and fears originating from religious beliefs, myths and folklore influenced human attitudes towards wolves and, as a result, wolves have been persecuted for hundreds of years. Currently, wolves are found in many European countries, although range lines are not depicted in the map above. Main prey in this region generally consists of ungulate species,
including livestock. Legal status, population numbers and trends vary
country to country.
Species Information
Species Common Names: gray wolf, ujku (Albanian), vuk (Croatian), vlk (Czech), ulv (Danish and Norwegian), wolf (Dutch and German), hunt (Estonian), susi (Estonian and Finnish), loup (French), farkas (Hungarian), lupo (Italian), wilk (Polish), lobo (Portuguese and Spanish), lup (Romanian), vlk dravý (Slovakian), volk (Slovene), varg (Swedish), kurt (Turkish), волк (Russian) Latin Name: Canis lupus
Subspecies 1 Common Names: tundra wolf, Eurasian Arctic wolf Latin Name: Canis lupus albus
Subspecies 2 Common Name: Latin Name: Canis lupus communis
Subspecies 3 Common Name: Italian wolf Latin Name: Canis lupus italicus
Subspecies 4 Common Name: Latin Name: Canis lupus lupus
Subspecies 5 Common Name: Latin Name: Canis lupus pallipes
Subspecies 6 Common Name: Iberian wolf Latin Name: Canis lupus signatus
Current Wolf Population, Trend, Status Number of wolves: About 10,000-20,000 not including Russia; numbers may be lower or higher due to insufficient research in several countries Population trend: Mostly stable or slightly increasing Legal protection: Protected in many countries, considered a game species in some; persecution or poaching in rural areas occurs despite protection
