11,000 years ago, the last Ice Age wiped out several species around the world. The change in climate brought about scarcity of food for wildlife. An extinction event happened so quickly in a short geologic time scale, causing one-third of all existing species to disappear.
Although a new ecosystem immediately emerged right after, some species survived the catastrophic event which is mass extinction. One of them being the gray wolves.
Gray wolves are one of the largest predators that survived the last Ice Age. At this time, they can be found roaming around Yukon s boreal forest and tundra, and said to prey on caribou and moose as their main sources of food. The main question is, how did the gray wolves make it through?
We May Finally Know How Gray Wolves Survived The Last Ice Age Mass Extinction
The last ice age was a bad time for wildlife.
The world froze, ecosystems changed, and humans and animals competed fiercely for available resources. By 11,700 years ago, as the ice age drew to a close, most of the large mammals roaming what is now the Yukon Territory in Canada had gone extinct; the large herbivores first, quickly followed by the large predators that relied on them for their own survival.
Gray wolves (
Canis lupus) were one of the largest predators to make it through, not just surviving but going on to thrive, their descendants even now skulking through the forests of the Yukon.