WWF-Canada’s 2025Living Planet Report Canada (LPRC)* shows the steepest average population decline of Canadian species yet — and one of the reasons is nature’s interconnectedness. Each species is part of a larger web, and when those links are broken, the impacts go beyond a single population. Read the*full report* for more species profiles.*

The grey wolf is one of the most recognizable animals on the planet, capturing the imagination of people around the world through both stories and science.

Grey wolf in forest habitat © Shutterstock With its expansive range across Canada, wolves comprise various recognized subspecies, largely identified by a combination of geographic location, genetics, morphological characteristics and ecological role.

Stories aside, it is undeniable that the presence or absence of these apex predators has an enormous impact on food webs, in which they play an outsized role as a keystone species.

Apex predators bring about changes that have ripple effects in the ecosystem — also known as trophic cascades. As you’ll see below, the presence of an apex predator not only impacts its prey and wildlife diversity, but also habitats, soil health, waters and carbon emissions — the ecosystem as a whole. When balanced, biodiversity supports healthy ecosystems.

The history of wolves in North America before European contact is one of reciprocal relationships where these animals played an important role in the cultural, social and ecological fabric of many Inuit, First Nations and Métis groups. After colonization, the relationship between humans and wolves changed, becoming more antagonistic as wolves began to be seen as threats to livestock.

A pack of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in a Nova Scotia forest © Frank Parhizgar / WWF-Canada It is not difficult to find examples of negative cultural connotations stemming from misperceptions, including in stories such as The Three Little Pigs and* Little Red Riding Hood*.

The mass killing of wolves, paired with the loss of their habitats, resulted in a considerable reduction in their range and abundance.

These losses led to unexpected cascading effects in the ecosystems that they once occupied. With fewer or no wolves controlling the size and behaviour of prey populations, such as elk and beavers, these herbivores over-browsed vegetation, which led to erosion and flooding.

Where wolves have been reintroduced, however, such as in Yellowstone National Park, in northwest Wyoming, U.S., they have exerted top-down pressure and helped control the herbivore populations and behaviours, allowing plant species to recover.

Canadian trends in wolf populations and subsequent ecosystems impacts vary by region

In urban environments, habitat loss has led to a decrease in wolves and a corresponding increase in species such as white- tailed deer, even when it coincided with an increase in other predators such as coyotes. In more northern regions, wolves have benefitted from linear landscape features created to support human activities, such as roadways and pipelines.

These corridors facilitate faster movement and increase access to caribou, which did not previously make up a significant proportion of the wolf’s diet. This has led to cascading effects in the ecosystem. While region-specific trends vary, grey wolves still occupy 80 per cent of their original range and are regarded overall as stable.