title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1975, Alice Cooper returned as a solo artist with the release of "Welcome to My Nightmare". To avoid legal complications over ownership of the group name, "Alice Cooper" had by then become the singer's new legal name. Speaking on the subject of Alice Cooper continuing as a solo project as opposed to the band it once was, Cooper stated in 1975, "It got very basically down to the fact that we had drawn as much as we could out of each other. After ten years, we got pretty dry together." Manager Gordon added, "What had started in a sense as a pipe-dream became an overwhelming burden." The success of "Welcome to My Nightmare" marked the final breakup of the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin, who recruited Lou Reed's backing band, including guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit ballad "Only Women Bleed", the album was released by Atlantic Records in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album that was based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star Vincent Price, and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now showcased more theatrics than ever, including an furry Cyclops which Cooper decapitated and killed.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Accompanying the album and stage show was the television special "The Nightmare", starring Cooper and Vincent Price, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. "The Nightmare" (which was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a Grammy Award nomination for Best Long Form Music Video) was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to it all, a concert film, "Welcome to My Nightmare", produced, directed, and choreographed by "West Side Story" cast member David Winters and filmed live at London's Wembley Arena in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. The film was released in a special edition DVD in 2017.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Such was the immense success of Cooper's solo project that he decided to continue as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith would go on to form the short-lived band Billion Dollar Babies, producing one studio album—"Battle Axe"—in 1977. While occasionally performing with one another and Glen Buxton, they would not reunite with Alice until October 23, 1999, at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend for a show at CoopersTown in Phoenix. They reunited for another show, with Steve Hunter on guitar, on December 16, 2010, at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix. This lineup would perform together again (televised) on March 14, 2011, at the induction of the original Alice Cooper group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as on May 11, 2011, at London's Battersea Power Station at the Jägermeister Ice Cold 4D event (webcast). In 2011, Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith appeared on three tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album "Welcome 2 My Nightmare". In 2017, they appeared on two tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album "Paranormal", released in July, and in November they joined his current live band for five tour dates in the United Kingdom.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Following the 1976 US No. 12 ballad hit "I Never Cry"; two studio albums, "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" and "Lace and Whiskey"; and the 1977 US No. 9 ballad hit "You and Me", it became clear during his 1977 US tour that Cooper was in dire need of help with his alcoholism (at his alcoholic peak it was rumored that he was consuming up to two cases of the beer Budweiser and a bottle of the whiskey Seagram's Seven Crown a day). Following the tour, Cooper had himself hospitalized in a sanitarium for treatment, during which time the live album "The Alice Cooper Show" was released.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1978, a sobered Cooper used his experience in the sanitarium as the inspiration for his semi-autobiographical studio album "From the Inside", which he co-wrote with Bernie Taupin; it spawned yet another US Top 20 hit ballad, "How You Gonna See Me Now". The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home-video release, "The Strange Case of Alice Cooper", in 1979. Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome to My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on "The Muppet Show" (episode #307) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the devil's henchmen trying to dupe Kermit, Gonzo and Miss Piggy into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-typecasting role as a piano-playing disco waiter in Mae West's final film, "Sextette", and as a villain in the film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of close friend and comedian Groucho Marx. In 1979, Alice also guest starred on good friend Soupy Sales' show, "Lunch with Soupy Sales" and was hit in the face with a pie, as part of the show. When asked about the experience, Alice had this to say about his pal: "Being from Detroit, I came home every day and watched Soupy at lunch (Lunch with Soupy Sales). One of the greatest moments of my life was getting pie-faced by Soupy. He was one of my all time heroes."


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper's studio albums from the beginning of the 1980s have been referred to by Cooper as his "blackout albums" because he cannot remember recording them, owing to the influence of illicit substances. "Flush the Fashion" (1980), "Special Forces" (1981), "Zipper Catches Skin" (1982) and "DaDa" (1983) saw a gradual commercial decline, with the last two not denting the "Billboard" Top 200. "Flush the Fashion", produced by Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, had a thick, edgy new wave musical sound that baffled even longtime fans, though it still yielded the US Top 40 hit "Clones (We're All)". The track also surprisingly charted on the US dance chart. "Special Forces" featured a more aggressive but consistent new wave style, and included a new version of "Generation Landslide". His tour for "Special Forces" marked Cooper's last time on the road for nearly five years; it was not until 1986, for "Constrictor", that he toured again. 1982's "Zipper Catches Skin" was a more pop punk-oriented recording, containing many quirky high-energy guitar-driven songs along with his most unusual collection of subject matters for lyrics. 1983 marked the return collaboration of producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner for the haunting epic "DaDa", the final studio album in his Warner Bros. contract.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In mid-1983, after the recording of "DaDa", Cooper was hospitalized for alcoholism again, and cirrhosis of the liver. Cooper was finally stable and sober (and has remained sober since that time) by the time "DaDa" and "The Nightmare" home video (of his 1975 TV Special) were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations. Even with "The Nightmare" scoring a nomination for 1984's Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video (he lost to Duran Duran), it was not enough for Warner Bros. to keep Cooper on their books. By February 1984, Cooper became a "free agent" for the first time in his career.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper spent a lengthy period away from the music business dealing with personal issues. His divorce from Sheryl Cooper was heard at Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona, on January 30, 1984, but a decision was made by the couple not to move forward with the divorce. The following month he guested at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards alongside co-presenter Grace Jones. Behind the scenes Cooper kept busy musically, working on new material in collaboration with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. The spring of 1984 was taken up with filming, Cooper acting in the B-grade horror movie "Monster Dog", filmed in Torrelodones, Spain. Shortly thereafter he reconciled with Sheryl; the couple relocated to Chicago. The year closed with more writing sessions, this time in New York during November with "Hanoi Rocks" guitarist Andy McCoy. In 1985, he met and began writing songs with guitarist Kane Roberts. Cooper was subsequently signed to MCA Records, and appeared as guest vocalist on Twisted Sister's song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel". A video was made for the song, featuring actor Luke Perry and Cooper donning his black snake-eyes makeup for the first time since 1979, but neither the song nor the video drew public interest.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1986, Alice Cooper officially returned to the music industry with the studio album "Constrictor". The album spawned the hits "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" (the theme song for the movie ""; in the video for the song Cooper was given a cameo role as a deranged psychiatrist) and the fan favorite "Teenage Frankenstein". The "Constrictor" album was a catalyst for Cooper to make a triumphant return to the road for the first time since the 1981 "Special Forces" project, on a tour titled "The Nightmare Returns". The Detroit leg of this tour, which took place at the end of October 1986 during Halloween, was captured on film as "The Nightmare Returns", and is viewed by some as being the definitive Alice Cooper concert film. It was released on DVD in 2006. The concert, which received rave reviews in the rock music press, was also described by "Rolling Stone" magazine as bringing "Cooper's violent, twisted onstage fantasies to a new generation". The "Constrictor" album was followed by "Raise Your Fist and Yell" in 1987, which had an even rougher sound than its predecessor, as well as the Cooper classic "Freedom". The subsequent tour of "Raise Your Fist and Yell", which was heavily inspired by the slasher horror movies of the time such as the "Friday the 13th" series and "A Nightmare on Elm Street", served up a shocking spectacle similar to its predecessor, and courted the kind of controversy, especially in Europe, that recalled the public outrage caused by Cooper's public performances in America in the early 1970s.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In Britain, Labour MP David Blunkett called for the show to be banned, saying "I'm horrified by his behaviour – it goes beyond the bounds of entertainment." The controversy spilled over into the German segment of the tour, with the German government actually succeeding in having some of the gorier segments of the performance removed. It was also during the London leg of the tour that Cooper met with a near fatal accident during rehearsal of the hanging execution sequence that occurs at the end of the show.


title: Alice Cooper

text: "Constrictor" (1986) and "Raise Your Fist and Yell" (1987) were recorded with lead guitarist Kane Roberts and bassist Kip Winger, both of whom would leave the band by the end of 1988 (although Kane Roberts played guitar on "Bed of Nails" on Cooper's 1989 studio album "Trash").


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1987, Cooper made a brief appearance as a vagrant in the horror movie "Prince of Darkness", directed by John Carpenter. His role had no lines and consisted of generally menacing the protagonists before eventually impaling one of them with a bicycle frame.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Also in 1987, Cooper appeared at "WrestleMania III", escorting wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts to the ring for his match against The Honky Tonk Man. After the match, which Roberts lost, ended, Cooper got involved and threw Jake's snake Damien at Honky's manager Jimmy Hart. Roberts considered the involvement of Cooper to be an honor, as he had idolized Cooper in his youth and was still a huge fan. "WrestleMania III", which attracted a WWF record 93,173 fans, was held in the Pontiac Silverdome near Cooper's home town of Detroit.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper recorded a music video for the "Poison" B-side "I Got a Line on You" after the song was featured on the soundtrack to "Iron Eagle II" (1988).


title: Alice Cooper

text: On April 7, 1988, Cooper nearly died of asphyxiation after a safety rope broke during a rehearsal concert wherein he pretended to hang himself, a stunt he would often perform during live concerts.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1988, Cooper's contract with MCA Records expired and he signed with Epic Records. Then in 1989 his career finally experienced a legitimate revival with the Desmond Child produced and Grammy-nominated studio album "Trash", which spawned a hit single "Poison", which reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 in the US, and a worldwide arena tour.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1991, Cooper released his nineteenth studio album "Hey Stoopid" featuring several notable rock musicians guesting on the record. Released as glam metal's popularity was on the wane, and just before the explosion of grunge, it failed to have the same commercial impact as its predecessor. The same year also saw the release of the video "Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts" which chronicled his entire career using in depth interviews with Cooper himself, Bob Ezrin, and Shep Gordon. One critic has noted that "Prime Cuts" demonstrates how Cooper had used (in contrast to similar artists who succeeded him) themes of satire and moralization to such good effect throughout his career. It was in the "Prime Cuts" video that Bob Ezrin delivered his own summation of the Alice Cooper persona: "He is the psycho killer in all of us. He's the axe murderer, he's the spoiled child, he's the abuser, he's the abused; he's the perpetrator, he's the victim, he's the gun slinger, and he's the guy lying dead in the middle of the street".


title: Alice Cooper

text: During the early 1990s, Cooper guested on records by the most successful bands of the time, such as the Guns N' Roses third studio album "Use Your Illusion I", on which he shared vocal duties with Axl Rose on the track "The Garden". He also had a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of Freddy Krueger in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film "" (1991).


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper made a cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film "Wayne's World". Cooper and his band first appear on stage performing "Feed My Frankenstein" from their studio album "Hey Stoopid". Afterwards at a backstage party, the movie's main characters Wayne Cambell and Garth Algar discover that when offstage, Cooper is a calm, articulate intellectual as he and his band discuss the history of Milwaukee in depth. Wayne and Garth respond to an invitation to hang out with Cooper by kneeling and bowing reverently before him while chanting "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1994, Cooper released "The Last Temptation", his first concept album since "DaDa" (1983). The album deals with issues of faith, temptation, alienation and the frustrations of modern life, and has been described as "a young man's struggle to see the truth through the distractions of the 'Sideshow' of the modern world". Concurrent with the release of "The Last Temptation" was a three-part comic book series written by Neil Gaiman, fleshing out the album's story. This was to be Cooper's last album with Epic Records since according to Brian 'Renfield' Nelson, Cooper's personal assistant, "Alice was interested in going to Hollywood Records even before 'The Last Temptation' was released because Bob Pfeifer, who originally signed Alice to Epic, was now the President of Hollywood Records. After 'The Last Temptation' was finished, Alice requested that Sony/Epic let him go so that he could make the switch to Hollywood. He just wanted to go where his friends are." and was his last studio release for six years, though during this period the live album "A Fistful of Alice" (1997) was released, and in 1997 he lent his voice to the intro track of Insane Clown Posse's "The Great Milenko".


title: Alice Cooper

text: During his absence from the recording studio, Cooper toured extensively every year throughout the latter part of the 1990s, including, in 1996, South America, which he had not visited since 1974. Also in 1996, Cooper sang the role of Herod on the London cast recording of the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar".


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1999, the four-disc box set "The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper" appeared, which contained the authorized biography of Cooper, "Alcohol and Razor Blades, Poison and Needles: The Glorious Wretched Excess of Alice Cooper, All-American", written by "Creem" magazine editor Jeffrey Morgan.


title: Alice Cooper

text: The first decade of the 21st century saw a sustained period of activity from Alice Cooper, the decade in which he would turn sixty. He toured extensively releasing a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim. Beginning in 2000 with "Brutal Planet", a return to horror-filled heavy metal, industrial rock, set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, inspired by our brutal modern world, and a number of current news stories appearing on CNN. The album was produced by Bob Marlette, with longtime Cooper production collaborator Bob Ezrin returning as executive producer. The accompanying world tour, which included Cooper's first concert in Russia, also resulted in "", a DVD of a concert, recorded in London, England, on July 19, 2000.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper made a guest appearance on a 2001, 3rd-season episode of "That '70s Show", "Radio Daze" in which he partakes in a game of "Dungeons & Dragons".


title: Alice Cooper

text: "Brutal Planet" was succeeded by the sonically similar and acclaimed sequel "Dragontown", which saw Bob Ezrin back as producer. The album has been described as leading the listener down "a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller" and by Cooper himself as being "the worst town on Brutal Planet". Like "The Last Temptation", both "Brutal Planet" and "Dragontown" are albums which explore Cooper's born again Christianity. It is often cited in the music media that "Dragontown" forms the third chapter in a trilogy begun with "The Last Temptation"; however, Cooper has indicated that this in fact is not the case.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper again adopted a leaner, cleaner sound for his critically acclaimed 2003 release "The Eyes of Alice Cooper". Recognizing that many contemporary bands were having great success with his former sounds and styles, Cooper worked with a somewhat younger group of road and studio musicians who were familiar with his oeuvre of old. The resulting "Bare Bones" tour adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had fewer theatrical flourishes and a greater emphasis on musicality.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper's radio show "Nights with Alice Cooper" began airing on January 26, 2004, in several US cities. The program showcases classic rock, Cooper's personal stories about his life as a rock icon and interviews with prominent rock artists. The show is broadcast on nearly 100 stations in the US and Canada, and has been broadcast internationally.


title: Alice Cooper

text: A continuation of the songwriting approach adopted on "The Eyes of Alice Cooper" was again adopted by Cooper for his twenty-fourth studio album "Dirty Diamonds", released in 2005. "Dirty Diamonds" became Cooper's highest-charting album since 1994's "The Last Temptation" at the time. The Dirty Diamonds tour launched in America in August 2005 after several European concerts, including a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 12. Cooper and his band, including Kiss drummer Eric Singer, were filmed for a DVD released as "Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005". One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than 30 years previously.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In December 2006, the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding".


title: Alice Cooper

text: On July 1, 2007, Cooper performed a duet with Marilyn Manson at the B'Estival event in Bucharest, Romania. The performance represented a reconciliation between the two artists; Cooper had previously taken issue with Manson over his overtly anti-Christian on-stage antics and had sarcastically made reference to the originality of Manson's choosing a female name and dressing in women's clothing. Cooper and Manson have been the subject of an academic paper on the significance of adolescent antiheroes.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In January 2008, Cooper was one of the guest singers on Avantasia's third studio album "The Scarecrow", singing the seventh track "The Toy Master". In July 2008, after lengthy delays, Cooper released "Along Came a Spider", his twenty-fifth studio album. It was Cooper's highest-charting album since 1991's "Hey Stoopid", reaching No. 53 in the US and No. 31 in the UK. The album, visiting similar territory explored in 1987's "Raise Your Fist and Yell", deals with the nefarious antics of a deranged serial killer named "Spider" who is on a quest to use the limbs of his victims to create a human spider. The album generally received positive reviews from music critics, though "Rolling Stone" magazine opined that the music on the record sorely missed Bob Ezrin's production values. The resulting "Theatre of Death" tour of the album (during which Cooper is executed on four separate occasions) was described in a long November 2009 article about Cooper in "The Times" as "epic" and featuring "enough fake blood to remake "Saving Private Ryan"".


title: Alice Cooper

text: During this period Cooper was also recognized and awarded in various ways: given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003; in May 2004 he received an honorary doctoral degree from Grand Canyon University. In June 2005, he was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. In May 2006 he was given the key to the city of Alice, North Dakota. He won the living legend award at the 2006 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards event; and he won the 2007 "Mojo" music magazine Hero Award. He received a Rock Immortal award at the 2007 Scream Awards.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In January 2010, it was announced that Cooper would be touring with Rob Zombie on The Gruesome Twosome Tour. In May 2010, Cooper made an appearance during the beginning of the season finale of the reality-show "American Idol", in which he sang "School's Out".


title: Alice Cooper

text: With his daughter, and former band member Dick Wagner, Cooper scored the music for the indie horror flick "Silas Gore".


title: Alice Cooper

text: During 2010, Cooper began working on a new studio album, dubbed "Welcome 2 My Nightmare", a sequel to the original "Welcome to My Nightmare". In a Radio Metal interview, he said that "We'll put some of the original people on it and add some new people ... I'm very happy with working with Bob (Ezrin) again."


title: Alice Cooper

text: On December 15, 2010, it was announced Cooper and his former band would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony took place March 14, 2011, where Cooper was inducted by fellow horror-rocker Rob Zombie. Original members Bruce, Cooper, Dunaway, and Smith all made brief acceptance speeches and performed "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" live together, with Steve Hunter filling in for the late Glen Buxton. Cooper showed up for the event wearing a (presumably fake) blood-splattered shirt and had a live albino Burmese python wrapped around his neck. Cooper told "Rolling Stone" magazine that he was "elated" by the news and that the nomination had been made for the original band, as "We all did go to the same high school together, and we were all on the track team, and it was pretty cool that guys that knew each other before the band ended up going that far".


title: Alice Cooper

text: On March 10, 2011, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Cooper, Jennifer Warnes, and others performed at a benefit concert in Tucson, Arizona, benefiting The Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding, a foundation that raises awareness about and provides medical prevention and treatment services to people with mental disorders. In June 2011 Cooper took his place in the Reasonably Priced Car at the BBC auto show "Top Gear".


title: Alice Cooper

text: On June 9, 2011, Cooper was awarded the "Kerrang! Icon Award" at "Kerrang!" magazine's annual awards show. Cooper used the opportunity to hit out at the "anaemic" rock music that dominates the charts, and said he has no intention of retiring from the industry.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper supported Iron Maiden on their Maiden England World Tour from June to July 21, 2012, and then headlined Bloodstock Open Air on Sunday August 12. On September 16, 2012, Cooper appeared at the Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, performing alongside Brian May lead guitarist of Queen, bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, drummer Ian Paice of Deep Purple, and Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper cameos as himself in the 2012 Tim Burton adaptation of "Dark Shadows" that starred Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. In the film, Depp's character Barnabas Collins, assumes his name to be that of a woman, describes Alice as the ugliest woman he has ever seen.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 2013, Cooper announced that he had finished recording a covers album, based on songs by his rock star drinking buddies in the 1970s who had since died from excess, and that it was scheduled for a spring 2014 release. Later he announced that the album would likely be released in 2015.


title: Alice Cooper

text: On January 28, 2014, it was officially revealed that Alice Cooper would be the opening act for Mötley Crüe's final tour, which would span throughout 2014 and 2015. Cooper was featured on the song "Savages" on Theory of a Deadman's fifth studio album.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper was the subject of "Super Duper Alice Cooper", a biographical documentary film by Canadian directors Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Reginald Harkema. The film won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015. In October, Cooper released the live album and video "Raise the Dead: Live from Wacken", which was recorded at Germany's Wacken heavy metal festival the previous year.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 2015, Cooper premiered Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup featuring Johnny Depp and Joe Perry with a new studio album of rock covers, featuring many guest artists including Paul McCartney, and live dates at L.A.'s Roxy Theatre and at Brazil's Rock in Rio festival in September. In 2016, Cooper made headlines again as he resumed his running gag of campaigning for the US presidency. Cooper featured as a co-headliner with Deep Purple and Edgar Winter for several tour dates from August to early September 2017.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper released the studio album "Paranormal" in July 2017. It featured contributions from drummer Larry Mullen Jr. of U2, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on guitar and Roger Glover from Deep Purple on bass guitar. Guitarists Tommy Denander and Tommy Henriksen contributed most of the guitars.


title: Alice Cooper

text: On Easter Sunday, 2018, Cooper performed as Herod in NBC's live performance of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert". Reviews were positive, with "The New York Times" critic Noel Murray praising "Alice Cooper's magnificently scenery-chewing performance" as a "startling moment of clarity," and Lorraine Ali of the "Los Angeles Times" describing his performance as, "Weird? Yes, but also perfect in a campy, dramatic and evil 'Billion Dollar Babies' kind of way. Cooper's part was small but indelible." Cooper had previously recorded the song (though not performed it live) in 2000, with the 1996 London revival cast.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper released his twenty-first solo studio album, "Detroit Stories", on February 26, 2021. In May, he announced a fall tour to promote the album, supported by Ace Frehley, set to begin in September 2021.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper wrote the afterword to Jeffrey Morgan's autobiography "Rock Critic Confidential" which was published by New Haven on June 28, 2021.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper participated as a judge on the competition TV show "No Cover" season 1 that started to be aired in the Sumerian Records YouTube Channel in April 2022.


title: Alice Cooper

text: On July 11, 2022, touring guitarist Nita Strauss announced she had departed the band. A few days later, it was announced Kane Roberts had rejoined the band, replacing Strauss.


title: Alice Cooper

text: During an interview for the program "Entertainment USA" in 1986, Cooper told interviewer Jonathan King that the Yardbirds were his favorite band of all time. Cooper had as far back as 1969 said that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands the Beatles, the Who, and the Rolling Stones, as well as the Yardbirds, that had the greatest influence on him. Cooper would later pay homage to the Who by singing "I'm a Boy" for "" in 1994 at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performing a cover of "My Generation" on the "Brutal Planet" tour of 2000. During an interview with Ozzy Osbourne from radio program "Nights with Alice Cooper" on May 22, 2007, Cooper again affirmed his debt of gratitude to these bands, and to the Beatles in particular. During their discussion, Cooper and Osbourne bemoaned the often inferior quality of songwriting coming from contemporary rock artists. Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to the Beatles".


title: Alice Cooper

text: On seeing shock rock pioneer Arthur Brown performing his US number two hit "Fire" in 1968, Cooper states, "Can you imagine the young Alice Cooper watching that with all his make-up and hellish performance? It was like all my Halloweens came at once!" A 2014 article on Alice Cooper in "The Guardian" mentioned Arthur Brown and his flaming helmet, "British rock always was more theatrical than its US counterpart. Often this involved destruction or macabre gimmickry", with Cooper responding, "That's why most people thought we were British at first."


title: Alice Cooper

text: Evidence of Cooper's eclectic tastes in classic and contemporary rock music can be seen in the track listings of his radio show; in addition, when he appeared on the BBC Radio 2 program "Tracks of My Years" in September 2007, he listed his favorite tracks of all time as being: "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966) by the Rolling Stones; "Turning Japanese" (1980) by the Vapors; "My Sharona" (1979) by the Knack; "Beds Are Burning" (1987) by Midnight Oil; "My Generation" (1965) by the Who; "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987) by Guns N' Roses; "Rebel Rebel" (1974) by David Bowie; "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) by the Yardbirds; "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (2003) by Jet; and "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) by the Beatles, and when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2010 he chose the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by the Yardbirds; "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys; "I'm a Boy" by the Who; "Timer" by Laura Nyro; "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson; "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction; "Work Song" by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; and "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Rob Zombie, former front man of White Zombie, claims his first "metal moment" was seeing Alice Cooper on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert". Zombie has also claimed to have been heavily influenced by Cooper's costumes. In a 1978 interview with "Rolling Stone", Bob Dylan stated, "I think Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter."


title: Alice Cooper

text: In the foreword to Alice Cooper's CD retrospective box set "The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper", John Lydon of the Sex Pistols pronounced "Killer" (1971) as the greatest rock album of all time, and in 2002 Lydon presented his own tribute program to Cooper on BBC radio. Lydon told the BBC that "I know the words to every Alice Cooper song. The fact is, if you can call what I have a musical career, it all started with me miming to 'I'm Eighteen' on a jukebox."


title: Alice Cooper

text: The Flaming Lips are longtime Alice Cooper fans and used the bass line from "Levity Ball" (an early song from the 1969 release "Pretties for You") for their song "The Ceiling Is Bending". They also covered "Sun Arise" for an Alice Cooper tribute album. (Cooper's version, which closes the album "Love It to Death", was itself a cover of a Rolf Harris song.)


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1999, Cleopatra Records released "Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper" featuring a number of contributions from rock and metal all-star collaborations, including Dave Mustaine, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie James Dio, Slash, Bruce Dickinson and Steve Jones. Sonic.net described it as "intriguing combinations of artists and material" while AllMusic noted "the novel approach will definitely hold interested listeners' attention".


title: Alice Cooper

text: A song by alternative rock group They Might Be Giants from their fifth studio album "John Henry" (1994) titled "Why Must I Be Sad?" mentions 13 Cooper songs, and has been described as being "from the perspective of a kid who hears all of his unspoken sadness given voice in the music of Alice Cooper; Alice says everything the kid has been wishing he could say about his alienated, frustrated, teenage world."


title: Alice Cooper

text: Unlikely non-musician fans of Cooper have included Groucho Marx and Mae West, who both reportedly saw the early shows as a form of vaudeville revue, and artist Salvador Dalí, who on attending a show in 1973 described it as being surreal, and made a hologram, "First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain".


title: Alice Cooper

text: In the early 1970s, a story was widely reported that "Leave It to Beaver" star Ken Osmond had become "rock star Alice Cooper". According to Cooper, the rumor began when a college newspaper editor asked him what kind of child he was, to which Cooper replied, "I was obnoxious, disgusting, a real Eddie Haskell," referring to the fictional character Osmond portrayed. However, the editor ended up reporting that Cooper was the real Haskell. Cooper later told the "New Times": "It was the biggest rumor that ever came out about me. Finally, I got a T-shirt that said, 'No, I am not Eddie Haskell.' But people still believed it."


title: Alice Cooper

text: On June 20, 2005, ahead of his June–July 2005 tour, Cooper had a wide-ranging interview with interviewer of celebrities Andrew Denton for the Australian ABC TV's "Enough Rope". Cooper discussed various issues during the talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family. During the interview, Cooper remarked "I look at Mick Jagger and he's on an 18-month tour and he's six years older than me, so I figure, when he retires, I have six more years. I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity."


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Alice" as a way to distance himself from his stage persona.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In the period when the Alice Cooper group was signed to Frank Zappa's Straight label, Miss Christine of the GTOs became Cooper's girlfriend. Miss Christine (real name Christine Frka), who had recommended Zappa to the group, died on November 5, 1972, of an overdose. Another long-time girlfriend of Cooper's was Cindy Lang, with whom he lived for several years.


title: Alice Cooper

text: After his separation from Lang, Cooper was briefly linked with actress Raquel Welch, although according to Dick Wagner, Cooper rejected Welch's advances. Cooper ended up marrying ballerina instructor and choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982. They married on March 20, 1976. In November 1983, at the height of Cooper's alcoholism, Goddard filed for divorce, but by mid-1984, she and Cooper had reconciled; they have three children: daughters Sonora and Calico, and son Dashiell.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In a 2002 television interview, Cooper stated that he had never cheated on his wife the entire time they had been together. In the same interview, he also said that the secret to a lasting and successful relationship is to continue going out on dates with one's partner.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In a 2019 interview, Cooper said that he and his wife Sheryl have a death pact, wherein they will die at the same time, sparking a flurry of headlines. But Cooper clarified his comments, telling "USA Today", "What I was meaning was that because we're almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we'd most likely be together at the time. But neither of us has a suicide pact. We have a life pact."


title: Alice Cooper

text: In 1986, thrash metal band Megadeth opened for Cooper on their US "Constrictor" tour. After noticing the abuse of alcohol and other drugs by Megadeth band members, Cooper personally approached the band to try to help them control their abuse. He has stayed close to lead vocalist Dave Mustaine, who considers Cooper to be his "godfather". Since overcoming his own addiction to alcohol in the mid-1980s, Cooper has continued to help and counsel other rock musicians with addiction problems. "I've made myself very available to friends of mine – they're people who would call me late at night and say, 'Between you and me, I've got a problem.'" In recognition of the work he has done in helping other addicts in the recovery process, Cooper received in 2008 the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the fourth annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert in Los Angeles.


title: Alice Cooper

text: During an interview with Johnnie Walker on BBC Radio 2 in September 2007, Cooper said that he was not a Christian when he gave up drinking, but stated that he thanks God for "taking it away", saying, "I mean if He [God] can part the Red Sea and create the universe, He can certainly take alcoholism away from somebody." Although he originally did not speak publicly about his religious beliefs, Cooper was later vocal about his faith as a born-again Christian.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Throughout his career, Cooper's philosophy regarding politics is that politics should not be mixed with rock music. Cooper has usually kept his political views to himself, and in 2010 said, "I am extremely non-political. I go out of my way to be non-political. I'm probably the biggest moderate you know. When John Lennon and Harry Nilsson used to argue politics, I was sitting right in the middle of them, and I was the guy who was going 'I don't care.' When my parents would start talking politics, I would go in my room and put on the Rolling Stones or the Who as long as I could avoid politics. And I still feel that way."


title: Alice Cooper

text: On occasion, Cooper has spoken out against musicians who promote or opine on politics; for example, in the build-up to the 2004 presidential election, he told The Canadian Press that the rock stars campaigning for and touring on behalf of Democratic candidate John Kerry were committing "treason against rock n' roll". He added, upon seeing a list of musicians who supported Kerry, "If I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush." In December 2018, Cooper predicted that the next U.S. president would be "worse" than then-president Donald Trump, while arguing that musicians talking politics to their fans was an "abuse of power".


title: Alice Cooper

text: Every four years since releasing his single "Elected" in 1972, Cooper has satirically run for president.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper is a fan of both the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and Arizona Coyotes. On February 18, 2012, the Coyotes gave away his bobblehead in a promotion for the first 10,000 fans for a game with the Dallas Stars. Cooper is a longtime baseball fan, supporting the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers. As a child, he dreamed of playing left field in the Tigers outfield alongside Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline. He has coached Little League baseball teams since his son played in the early 1990s. Cooper is also a fan of NBA basketball, supporting both the Detroit Pistons and the Phoenix Suns.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper is an avid golfer and says that the sport helped him play a major role in overcoming his addiction to alcohol, and has even gone so far as to say that when he took up golf, it was a case of replacing one addiction with another. The importance that the game has had in his life is also reflected in the title to his 2007 autobiography, "Alice Cooper, Golf Monster". Cooper, who has participated in a number of pro–am competitions, plays the game six days a week, off a handicap of four.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper has also appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment and was a guest of veteran British player and broadcaster Peter Alliss on "A Golfer's Travels". He wrote the foreword to the Gary McCord book "Ryder Cup" and participated in the second "All-Star Cup" in Newport, Wales.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper, a fan of "The Simpsons", was asked to contribute a storyline for the September 2004 edition of Bongo Comics's "Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror", a special "Monsters of Rock" issue that also included stories plotted by Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone.


title: Alice Cooper

text: In October 1979, Alice Cooper was featured in the Marvel comic book "Marvel Premiere", Volume 1, Number 50 loosely adapting his "From the Inside" studio album.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper is also the subject of the "We're not worthy" meme, which was popularized during his cameo in "Wayne's World" with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in 1992.


title: Alice Cooper

text: Cooper contributed his likeness and over 700 voice lines to Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, a pinball machine released in 2018 by Spooky Pinball that also features ten songs performed by Cooper. Only 500 machines were made.


title: Alice Cooper

text: On October 7, 2021, Play'n GO released "Alice Cooper and the Tome of Madness," a web-based game. This branded game features voice lines especially recorded by Cooper, in addition to this it boasts an animated version of Cooper as well as the song "Welcome to My Nightmare".


title: Wolf

text: The wolf (Canis lupus; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of "Canis lupus" have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly understood, comprise wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae. It is also distinguished from other "Canis" species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller "Canis" species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The banded fur of a wolf is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.


title: Wolf

text: Of all members of the genus "Canis", the wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large prey, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behaviour including individual or group howling. It travels in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring. Offspring may leave to form their own packs on the onset of sexual maturity and in response to competition for food within the pack. Wolves are also territorial and fights over territory are among the principal causes of wolf mortality. The wolf is mainly a carnivore and feeds on large wild hooved mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage. Single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than do large packs. Pathogens and parasites, notably rabies virus, may infect wolves.


title: Wolf

text: The global wild wolf population was estimated to be 300,000 in 2003 and is considered to be of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Wolves have a long history of interactions with humans, having been despised and hunted in most pastoral communities because of their attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies. The wolf is also considered the ancestor of the domestic dog. Although the fear of wolves exists in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to animals suffering from rabies. Wolf attacks on humans are rare because wolves are relatively few, live away from people, and have developed a fear of humans because of their experiences with hunters, farmers, ranchers, and shepherds.


title: Wolf

text: The English "wolf" stems from the Old English , which is itself thought to be derived from the Proto-Germanic . The Proto-Indo-European root *' may also be the source of the Latin word for the animal "lupus" (*'). The name "gray wolf" refers to the grayish colour of the species.


title: Wolf

text: Since pre-Christian times, Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons took on "wulf" as a prefix or suffix in their names. Examples include Wulfhere ("Wolf Army"), Cynewulf ("Royal Wolf"), Cēnwulf ("Bold Wolf"), Wulfheard ("Wolf-hard"), Earnwulf ("Eagle Wolf"), Wulfstān ("Wolf Stone") Æðelwulf ("Noble Wolf"), Wolfhroc ("Wolf-Frock"), Wolfhetan ("Wolf Hide"), Scrutolf ("Garb Wolf"), Wolfgang ("Wolf Gait") and Wolfdregil ("Wolf Runner").


title: Wolf

text: In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published in his "Systema Naturae" the binomial nomenclature. "Canis" is the Latin word meaning "dog", and under this genus he listed the doglike carnivores including domestic dogs, wolves, and jackals. He classified the domestic dog as "Canis familiaris", and the wolf as "Canis lupus". Linnaeus considered the dog to be a separate species from the wolf because of its "cauda recurvata" (upturning tail) which is not found in any other canid.


title: Wolf

text: In the third edition of "Mammal Species of the World" published in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft listed under "C. lupus" 36 wild subspecies, and proposed two additional subspecies: "familiaris" (Linnaeus, 1758) and "dingo" (Meyer, 1793). Wozencraft included "hallstromi"—the New Guinea singing dog—as a taxonomic synonym for the dingo. Wozencraft referred to a 1999 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) study as one of the guides in forming his decision, and listed the 38 subspecies of "C. lupus" under the biological common name of "wolf", the nominate subspecies being the Eurasian wolf ("C. l. lupus") based on the type specimen that Linnaeus studied in Sweden. Studies using paleogenomic techniques reveal that the modern wolf and the dog are sister taxa, as modern wolves are not closely related to the population of wolves that was first domesticated. In 2019, a workshop hosted by the IUCN/Species Survival Commission's Canid Specialist Group considered the New Guinea singing dog and the dingo to be feral "Canis familiaris", and therefore should not be assessed for the IUCN Red List.


title: Wolf

text: The phylogenetic descent of the extant wolf "C. lupus" from "C. etruscus" through "C. mosbachensis" is widely accepted. The earliest fossils of "C. lupus" were found in what was once eastern Beringia at Old Crow, Yukon, Canada, and at Cripple Creek Sump, Fairbanks, Alaska. The age is not agreed upon but could date to one million years ago. Considerable morphological diversity existed among wolves by the Late Pleistocene. They had more robust skulls and teeth than modern wolves, often with a shortened snout, a pronounced development of the temporalis muscle, and robust premolars. It is proposed that these features were specialized adaptations for the processing of carcass and bone associated with the hunting and scavenging of Pleistocene megafauna. Compared with modern wolves, some Pleistocene wolves showed an increase in tooth breakage similar to that seen in the extinct dire wolf. This suggests they either often processed carcasses, or that they competed with other carnivores and needed to consume their prey quickly. Compared with those found in the modern spotted hyena, the frequency and location of tooth fractures in these wolves indicates they were habitual bone crackers.


title: Wolf

text: Genomic studies suggest modern wolves and dogs descend from a common ancestral wolf population that existed 20,000 years ago. A 2021 study found that the Himalayan wolf and the Indian plains wolf are part of a lineage that is basal to other wolves and split from them 200,000 years ago. Other wolves appear to have originated in Beringia in an expansion that was driven by the huge ecological changes during the close of the Late Pleistocene. A study in 2016 indicates that a population bottleneck was followed by a rapid radiation from an ancestral population at a time during, or just after, the Last Glacial Maximum. This implies the original morphologically diverse wolf populations were out-competed and replaced by more modern wolves.


title: Wolf

text: A 2016 genomic study suggests that Old World and New World wolves split around 12,500 years ago followed by the divergence of the lineage that led to dogs from other Old World wolves around 11,100–12,300 years ago. An extinct Late Pleistocene wolf may have been the ancestor of the dog, with the dog's similarity to the extant wolf being the result of genetic admixture between the two. The dingo, Basenji, Tibetan Mastiff and Chinese indigenous breeds are basal members of the domestic dog clade. The divergence time for wolves in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia is estimated to be fairly recent at around 1,600 years ago. Among New World wolves, the Mexican wolf diverged around 5,400 years ago.


title: Wolf

text: In the distant past, there has been gene flow between African wolves, golden jackals, and gray wolves. The African wolf is a descendant of a genetically admixed canid of 72% wolf and 28% Ethiopian wolf ancestry. One African wolf from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula shows admixture with Middle Eastern gray wolves and dogs. There is evidence of gene flow between golden jackals and Middle Eastern wolves, less so with European and Asian wolves, and least with North American wolves. This indicates the golden jackal ancestry found in North American wolves may have occurred before the divergence of the Eurasian and North American wolves.


title: Wolf

text: The common ancestor of the coyote and the wolf has admixed with a ghost population of an extinct unidentified canid. This canid is genetically close to the dhole and evolved after the divergence of the African hunting dog from the other canid species. The basal position of the coyote compared to the wolf is proposed to be due to the coyote retaining more of the mitochondrial genome of this unidentified canid. Similarly, a museum specimen of a wolf from southern China collected in 1963 showed a genome that was 12–14% admixed from this unknown canid. In North America, most coyotes and wolves show varying degrees of past genetic admixture.


title: Wolf

text: In more recent times, some male Italian wolves originated from dog ancestry, which indicates female wolves will breed with male dogs in the wild. In the Caucasus Mountains, ten percent of dogs including livestock guardian dogs, are first generation hybrids. Although mating between golden jackals and wolves has never been observed, evidence of jackal-wolf hybridization was discovered through mitochondrial DNA analysis of jackals living in the Caucasus Mountains and in Bulgaria.


title: Wolf

text: In 2021, a genetic study found that the dog's similarity to the extant gray wolf was the result of substantial dog-into-wolf gene flow, with almost negligible wolf-into-dog gene flow since the dog's domestication. Some gray wolves were related to all ancient and modern dogs.


title: Wolf

text: The wolf is the largest extant member of the Canidae family, and is further distinguished from coyotes and jackals by a broader snout, shorter ears, a shorter torso and a longer tail. It is slender and powerfully built, with a large, deeply descending rib cage, a sloping back, and a heavily muscled neck. The wolf's legs are moderately longer than those of other canids, which enables the animal to move swiftly, and to overcome the deep snow that covers most of its geographical range in winter. The ears are relatively small and triangular. The wolf's head is large and heavy, with a wide forehead, strong jaws and a long, blunt muzzle. The skull is in length and in width. The teeth are heavy and large, making them better suited to crushing bone than those of other canids. They are not as specialized as those found in hyenas though. Its molars have a flat chewing surface, but not to the same extent as the coyote, whose diet contains more vegetable matter. Females tend to have narrower muzzles and foreheads, thinner necks, slightly shorter legs, and less massive shoulders than males.


title: Wolf

text: Adult wolves measure in length and at shoulder height. The tail measures in length, the ears in height, and the hind feet are . The size and weight of the modern wolf increases proportionally with latitude in accord with Bergmann's rule. The mean body mass of the wolf is , the smallest specimen recorded at and the largest at . On average, European wolves weigh , North American wolves , and Indian and Arabian wolves . Females in any given wolf population typically weigh less than males. Wolves weighing over are uncommon, though exceptionally large individuals have been recorded in Alaska and Canada. In central Russia, exceptionally large males can reach a weight of .


title: Wolf

text: The wolf has very dense and fluffy winter fur, with a short undercoat and long, coarse guard hairs. Most of the undercoat and some guard hairs are shed in spring and grow back in autumn. The longest hairs occur on the back, particularly on the front quarters and neck. Especially long hairs grow on the shoulders and almost form a crest on the upper part of the neck. The hairs on the cheeks are elongated and form tufts. The ears are covered in short hairs and project from the fur. Short, elastic and closely adjacent hairs are present on the limbs from the elbows down to the calcaneal tendons. The winter fur is highly resistant to the cold. Wolves in northern climates can rest comfortably in open areas at by placing their muzzles between the rear legs and covering their faces with their tail. Wolf fur provides better insulation than dog fur and does not collect ice when warm breath is condensed against it.


title: Wolf

text: In cold climates, the wolf can reduce the flow of blood near its skin to conserve body heat. The warmth of the foot pads is regulated independently from the rest of the body and is maintained at just above tissue-freezing point where the pads come in contact with ice and snow. In warm climates, the fur is coarser and scarcer than in northern wolves. Female wolves tend to have smoother furred limbs than males and generally develop the smoothest overall coats as they age. Older wolves generally have more white hairs on the tip of the tail, along the nose, and on the forehead. Winter fur is retained longest by lactating females, although with some hair loss around their teats. Hair length on the middle of the back is , and the guard hairs on the shoulders generally do not exceed , but can reach .


title: Wolf

text: A wolf's coat colour is determined by its guard hairs. Wolves usually have some hairs that are white, brown, gray and black. The coat of the Eurasian wolf is a mixture of ochreous (yellow to orange) and rusty ochreous (orange/red/brown) colours with light gray. The muzzle is pale ochreous gray, and the area of the lips, cheeks, chin, and throat is white. The top of the head, forehead, under and between the eyes, and between the eyes and ears is gray with a reddish film. The neck is ochreous. Long, black tips on the hairs along the back form a broad stripe, with black hair tips on the shoulders, upper chest and rear of the body. The sides of the body, tail, and outer limbs are a pale dirty ochreous colour, while the inner sides of the limbs, belly, and groin are white. Apart from those wolves which are pure white or black, these tones vary little across geographical areas, although the patterns of these colours vary between individuals.


title: Wolf

text: In North America, the coat colours of wolves follow Gloger's rule, wolves in the Canadian arctic being white and those in southern Canada, the U.S., and Mexico being predominantly gray. In some areas of the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia, the coat colour is predominantly black, some being blue-gray and some with silver and black. Differences in coat colour between sexes is absent in Eurasia; females tend to have redder tones in North America. Black-coloured wolves in North America acquired their colour from wolf-dog admixture after the first arrival of dogs across the Bering Strait 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. Research into the inheritance of white colour from dogs into wolves has yet to be undertaken.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves occur across Eurasia and North America. However, deliberate human persecution because of livestock predation and fear of attacks on humans has reduced the wolf's range to about one-third of its historic range; the wolf is now extirpated (locally extinct) from much of its range in Western Europe, the United States and Mexico, and completely in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Japan. In modern times, the wolf occurs mostly in wilderness and remote areas. The wolf can be found between sea level and . Wolves live in forests, inland wetlands, shrublands, grasslands (including Arctic tundra), pastures, deserts, and rocky peaks on mountains. Habitat use by wolves depends on the abundance of prey, snow conditions, livestock densities, road densities, human presence and topography.


title: Wolf

text: Like all land mammals that are pack hunters, the wolf feeds predominantly on wild herbivorous hoofed mammals that can be divided into large size and medium size , and have a body mass similar to that of the combined mass of the pack members. The wolf specializes in preying on the vulnerable individuals of large prey, with a pack of 15 able to bring down an adult moose. The variation in diet between wolves living on different continents is based on the variety of hoofed mammals and of available smaller and domesticated prey.


title: Wolf

text: In North America, the wolf's diet is dominated by wild large hoofed mammals (ungulates) and medium-sized mammals. In Asia and Europe, their diet is dominated by wild medium-sized hoofed mammals and domestic species. The wolf depends on wild species, and if these are not readily available, as in Asia, the wolf is more reliant on domestic species. Across Eurasia, wolves prey mostly on moose, red deer, roe deer and wild boar. In North America, important range-wide prey are elk, moose, caribou, white-tailed deer and mule deer. They also prey on bison and muskoxen. Wolves can digest their meal in a few hours and can feed several times in one day, making quick use of large quantities of meat. A well-fed wolf stores fat under the skin, around the heart, intestines, kidneys, and bone marrow, particularly during the autumn and winter.


title: Wolf

text: Nonetheless, wolves are not fussy eaters. Smaller-sized animals that may supplement their diet include rodents, rabbits, hares, insectivores and smaller carnivores. They frequently eat waterfowl and their eggs. When such foods are insufficient, they prey on lizards, snakes, frogs, and large insects when available. Wolves in northern Minnesota prey on northern pike in freshwater streams. The diet of coastal wolves in Alaska includes 20% salmon, while those of coastal wolves in British Columbia includes 25% marine sources, and those on the nearby islands 75%.


title: Wolf

text: In Europe, wolves eat apples, pears, figs, melons, berries and cherries. In North America, wolves eat blueberries and raspberries. Wolves also eat grass, which may provide some vitamins, but is most likely used mainly to induce vomiting to rid themselves of intestinal parasites or long guard hairs. They are known to eat the berries of mountain-ash, lily of the valley, bilberries, cowberries, European black nightshade, grain crops, and the shoots of reeds.


title: Wolf

text: In times of scarcity, wolves will readily eat carrion. In Eurasian areas with dense human activity, many wolf populations are forced to subsist largely on livestock and garbage. Prey in North America continue to occupy suitable habitats with low human density, the wolves eating livestock and garbage only in dire circumstances. Cannibalism is not uncommon in wolves during harsh winters, when packs often attack weak or injured wolves and may eat the bodies of dead pack members.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves typically dominate other canid species in areas where they both occur. In North America, incidents of wolves killing coyotes are common, particularly in winter, when coyotes feed on wolf kills. Wolves may attack coyote den sites, digging out and killing their pups, though rarely eating them. There are no records of coyotes killing wolves, though coyotes may chase wolves if they outnumber them. According to a press release by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1921, the infamous Custer Wolf relied on coyotes to accompany him and warn him of danger. Though they fed from his kills, he never allowed them to approach him. Interactions have been observed in Eurasia between wolves and golden jackals, the latter's numbers being comparatively small in areas with high wolf densities. Wolves also kill red, Arctic and corsac foxes, usually in disputes over carcasses, sometimes eating them.


title: Wolf

text: Brown bears typically dominate wolf packs in disputes over carcasses, while wolf packs mostly prevail against bears when defending their den sites. Both species kill each other's young. Wolves eat the brown bears they kill, while brown bears seem to eat only young wolves. Wolf interactions with American black bears are much rarer because of differences in habitat preferences. Wolves have been recorded on numerous occasions actively seeking out American black bears in their dens and killing them without eating them. Unlike brown bears, American black bears frequently lose against wolves in disputes over kills. Wolves also dominate and sometimes kill wolverines, and will chase off those that attempt to scavenge from their kills. Wolverines escape from wolves in caves or up trees.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves may interact and compete with felids, such as the Eurasian lynx, which may feed on smaller prey where wolves are present and may be suppressed by large wolf populations. Wolves encounter cougars along portions of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent mountain ranges. Wolves and cougars typically avoid encountering each other by hunting at different elevations for different prey (niche partitioning). In winter, when snow accumulation forces their prey into valleys, interactions between the two species become more likely. Wolves in packs usually dominate cougars and can steal their kills or even kill them, while one-to-one encounters tend to be dominated by the cat. There are several documented cases of cougars killing wolves. Wolves more broadly affect cougar population dynamics and distribution by dominating territory and prey opportunities and disrupting the feline's behaviour. Wolf and Siberian tiger interactions are well-documented in the Russian Far East, where tigers significantly depress wolf numbers, sometimes to the point of localized extinction. Only human depletion of tiger numbers appears to protect wolves from competitive exclusion from them. With perhaps only four proven records of tigers killing wolves, these cases are rare; attacks appear to be competitive rather than predatory in nature.


title: Wolf

text: In Israel, Palestine, Central Asia and India wolves may encounter striped hyenas, usually in disputes over carcasses. Striped hyenas feed extensively on wolf-killed carcasses in areas where the two species interact. One-to-one, hyenas dominate wolves, and may prey on them, but wolf packs can drive off single or outnumbered hyenas. There is at least one case in Israel of a hyena associating and cooperating with a wolf pack. It is proposed that the hyena could benefit from the wolves' superior ability to hunt large, agile prey. The wolves could benefit from the hyena's superior sense of smell, to locate and dig out tortoises, to crack open large bones, and to tear open discarded food containers like tin cans.


title: Wolf

text: The wolf is a social animal. Its populations consist of packs and lone wolves, most lone wolves being temporarily alone while they disperse from packs to form their own or join another one. The wolf's basic social unit is the nuclear family consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring. The average pack size in North America is eight wolves and in Europe 5.5 wolves. The average pack across Eurasia consists of a family of eight wolves (two adults, juveniles, and yearlings), or sometimes two or three such families, with examples of exceptionally large packs consisting of up to 42 wolves being known. Cortisol levels in wolves rise significantly when a pack member dies, indicating the presence of stress. During times of prey abundance caused by calving or migration, different wolf packs may join together temporarily.


title: Wolf

text: Offspring typically stay in the pack for 10–54 months before dispersing. Triggers for dispersal include the onset of sexual maturity and competition within the pack for food. The distance travelled by dispersing wolves varies widely; some stay in the vicinity of the parental group, while other individuals may travel great distances of upwards of , , and from their natal (birth) packs. A new pack is usually founded by an unrelated dispersing male and female, travelling together in search of an area devoid of other hostile packs. Wolf packs rarely adopt other wolves into their fold and typically kill them. In the rare cases where other wolves are adopted, the adoptee is almost invariably an immature animal of one to three years old, and unlikely to compete for breeding rights with the mated pair. This usually occurs between the months of February and May. Adoptee males may mate with an available pack female and then form their own pack. In some cases, a lone wolf is adopted into a pack to replace a deceased breeder.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves are territorial and generally establish territories far larger than they require to survive assuring a steady supply of prey. Territory size depends largely on the amount of prey available and the age of the pack's pups. They tend to increase in size in areas with low prey populations, or when the pups reach the age of six months when they have the same nutritional needs as adults. Wolf packs travel constantly in search of prey, covering roughly 9% of their territory per day, on average . The core of their territory is on average where they spend 50% of their time. Prey density tends to be much higher on the territory's periphery. Except out of desperation, wolves tend to avoid hunting on the fringes of their range to avoid fatal confrontations with neighbouring packs. The smallest territory on record was held by a pack of six wolves in northeastern Minnesota, which occupied an estimated , while the largest was held by an Alaskan pack of ten wolves encompassing . Wolf packs are typically settled, and usually leave their accustomed ranges only during severe food shortages. Territorial fights are among the principal causes of wolf mortality, one study concluding that 14–65% of wolf deaths in Minnesota and the Denali National Park and Preserve were due to other wolves.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves communicate using vocalizations, body postures, scent, touch, and taste. The phases of the moon have no effect on wolf vocalization, and despite popular belief, wolves do not howl at the moon. Wolves howl to assemble the pack usually before and after hunts, to pass on an alarm particularly at a den site, to locate each other during a storm, while crossing unfamiliar territory, and to communicate across great distances. Wolf howls can under certain conditions be heard over areas of up to . Other vocalizations include growls, barks and whines. Wolves do not bark as loudly or continuously as dogs do in confrontations, rather barking a few times and then retreating from a perceived danger. Aggressive or self-assertive wolves are characterized by their slow and deliberate movements, high body posture and raised hackles, while submissive ones carry their bodies low, flatten their fur, and lower their ears and tail.


title: Wolf

text: Scent marking involves urine, feces, and anal gland scents. This is more effective at advertising territory than howling and is often used in combination with scratch marks. Wolves increase their rate of scent marking when they encounter the marks of wolves from other packs. Lone wolves will rarely mark, but newly bonded pairs will scent mark the most. These marks are generally left every throughout the territory on regular travelways and junctions. Such markers can last for two to three weeks, and are typically placed near rocks, boulders, trees, or the skeletons of large animals. Raised leg urination is considered to be one of the most important forms of scent communication in the wolf, making up 60–80% of all scent marks observed.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves are monogamous, mated pairs usually remaining together for life. Should one of the pair die, another mate is found quickly. With wolves in the wild, inbreeding does not occur where outbreeding is possible. Wolves become mature at the age of two years and sexually mature from the age of three years. The age of first breeding in wolves depends largely on environmental factors: when food is plentiful, or when wolf populations are heavily managed, wolves can rear pups at younger ages to better exploit abundant resources. Females are capable of producing pups every year, one litter annually being the average. Oestrus and rut begin in the second half of winter and lasts for two weeks.


title: Wolf

text: Dens are usually constructed for pups during the summer period. When building dens, females make use of natural shelters like fissures in rocks, cliffs overhanging riverbanks and holes thickly covered by vegetation. Sometimes, the den is the appropriated burrow of smaller animals such as foxes, badgers or marmots. An appropriated den is often widened and partly remade. On rare occasions, female wolves dig burrows themselves, which are usually small and short with one to three openings. The den is usually constructed not more than away from a water source. It typically faces southwards where it can be better warmed by sunlight exposure, and the snow can thaw more quickly. Resting places, play areas for the pups, and food remains are commonly found around wolf dens. The odor of urine and rotting food emanating from the denning area often attracts scavenging birds like magpies and ravens. Though they mostly avoid areas within human sight, wolves have been known to nest near domiciles, paved roads and railways. During pregnancy, female wolves remain in a den located away from the peripheral zone of their territories, where violent encounters with other packs are less likely to occur.


title: Wolf

text: The gestation period lasts 62–75 days with pups usually being born in the spring months or early summer in very cold places such as on the tundra. Young females give birth to four to five young, and older females from six to eight young and up to 14. Their mortality rate is 60–80%. Newborn wolf pups look similar to German Shepherd Dog pups. They are born blind and deaf and are covered in short soft grayish-brown fur. They weigh at birth and begin to see after nine to 12 days. The milk canines erupt after one month. Pups first leave the den after three weeks. At one-and-a-half months of age, they are agile enough to flee from danger. Mother wolves do not leave the den for the first few weeks, relying on the fathers to provide food for them and their young. Pups begin to eat solid food at the age of three to four weeks. They have a fast growth rate during their first four months of life: during this period, a pup's weight can increase nearly 30 times. Wolf pups begin play-fighting at the age of three weeks, though unlike young coyotes and foxes, their bites are gentle and controlled. Actual fights to establish hierarchy usually occur at five to eight weeks of age. This is in contrast to young coyotes and foxes, which may begin fighting even before the onset of play behaviour. By autumn, the pups are mature enough to accompany the adults on hunts for large prey.


title: Wolf

text: Single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than do large packs; single wolves have occasionally been observed to kill large prey such as moose, bison and muskoxen unaided. This contrasts with the commonly held belief that larger packs benefit from cooperative hunting to bring down large game. The size of a wolf hunting pack is related to the number of pups that survived the previous winter, adult survival, and the rate of dispersing wolves leaving the pack. The optimal pack size for hunting elk is four wolves, and for bison a large pack size is more successful.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves move around their territory when hunting, using the same trails for extended periods. After snowfalls, wolves find their old trails and continue using them. These follow the banks of rivers, the shorelines of lakes, ravines overgrown with shrubs, plantations, or roads and human paths. Wolves are nocturnal predators. During the winter, a pack will commence hunting in the twilight of early evening and will hunt all night, traveling tens of kilometres. Sometimes hunting large prey occurs during the day. During the summer, wolves generally tend to hunt individually, ambushing their prey and rarely giving pursuit.


title: Wolf

text: When hunting large gregarious prey, wolves will try to isolate an individual from its group. If successful, a wolf pack can bring down game that will feed it for days, but one error in judgement can lead to serious injury or death. Most large prey have developed defensive adaptations and behaviours. Wolves have been killed while attempting to bring down bison, elk, moose, muskoxen, and even by one of their smallest hoofed prey, the white-tailed deer. With smaller prey like beaver, geese, and hares, there is no risk to the wolf. Although people often believe wolves can easily overcome any of their prey, their success rate in hunting hoofed prey is usually low.


title: Wolf

text: The wolf must give chase and gain on its fleeing prey, slow it down by biting through thick hair and hide, and then disable it enough to begin feeding. After chasing and then confronting a large prey animal, the wolf makes use of its fangs and its powerful masseter muscles to deliver a bite force of , which is capable of breaking open the skulls of many of its prey animals. The wolf leaps at its quarry and tears at it. One wolf was observed being dragged for dozens of metres attached to the hind leg of a moose; another was seen being dragged over a fallen log while attached to a bull elk's nose. Wolves may wound large prey and then lie around resting for hours before killing it when it is weaker due to blood loss, thereby lessening the risk of injury to themselves. With medium-sized prey, such as roe deer or sheep, wolves kill by biting the throat, severing nerve tracks and the carotid artery, thus causing the animal to die within a few seconds to a minute. With small, mouselike prey, wolves leap in a high arc and immobilize it with their forepaws.


title: Wolf

text: Once prey is brought down, wolves begin to feed excitedly, ripping and tugging at the carcass in all directions, and bolting down large chunks of it. The breeding pair typically monopolizes food to continue producing pups. When food is scarce, this is done at the expense of other family members, especially non-pups. The breeding pair typically eats first. They usually work the hardest at killing prey, and may rest after a long hunt and allow the rest of the family to eat undisturbed. Once the breeding pair has finished eating, the rest of the family tears off pieces of the carcass and transports them to secluded areas where they can eat in peace. Wolves typically commence feeding by gorging on the larger internal organs, like the heart, liver, lungs, and stomach lining. The kidneys and spleen are eaten once they are exposed, followed by the muscles. A wolf can eat 15–19% of its body weight in one sitting.


title: Wolf

text: Viral diseases carried by wolves include: rabies, canine distemper, canine parvovirus, infectious canine hepatitis, papillomatosis, and canine coronavirus. Wolves are a major host for rabies in Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and India. In wolves, the incubation period is eight to 21 days, and results in the host becoming agitated, deserting its pack, and travelling up to a day, thus increasing the risk of infecting other wolves. Infected wolves do not show any fear of humans, most documented wolf attacks on people being attributed to rabid animals. Although canine distemper is lethal in dogs, it has not been recorded to kill wolves, except in Canada and Alaska. The canine parvovirus, which causes death by dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and endotoxic shock or sepsis, is largely survivable in wolves, but can be lethal to pups. Wolves may catch infectious canine hepatitis from dogs, though there are no records of wolves dying from it. Papillomatosis has been recorded only once in wolves, and likely does not cause serious illness or death, though it may alter feeding behaviours. The canine coronavirus has been recorded in Alaskan wolves, infections being most prevalent in winter months.


title: Wolf

text: Bacterial diseases carried by wolves include: brucellosis, Lyme disease, leptospirosis, tularemia, bovine tuberculosis, listeriosis and anthrax. Wolves can catch "Brucella suis" from wild and domestic reindeer. While adult wolves tend not to show any clinical signs, it can severely weaken the pups of infected females. Although lyme disease can debilitate individual wolves, it does not appear to significantly affect wolf populations. Leptospirosis can be contracted through contact with infected prey or urine, and can cause fever, anorexia, vomiting, anemia, hematuria, icterus, and death. Wolves living near farms are more vulnerable to the disease than those living in the wilderness, probably because of prolonged contact with infected domestic animal waste. Wolves may catch tularemia from lagomorph prey, though its effect on wolves is unknown. Although bovine tuberculosis is not considered a major threat to wolves, it has been recorded to have killed two wolf pups in Canada.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves carry ectoparasites and endoparasites; those in the former Soviet Union have been recorded to carry at least 50 species. Most of these parasites infect wolves without adverse effects, though the effects may become more serious in sick or malnourished specimens. Parasitic infection in wolves is of particular concern to people. Wolves can spread them to dogs, which in turn can carry the parasites to humans. In areas where wolves inhabit pastoral areas, the parasites can be spread to livestock.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves are often infested with a variety of arthropod exoparasites, including fleas, ticks, lice, and mites. The most harmful to wolves, particularly pups, is the mange mite ("Sarcoptes scabiei"), though they rarely develop full-blown mange, unlike foxes. Lice, such as "Trichodectes canis", may cause sickness in wolves, but rarely death. Ticks of the genus "Ixodes" can infect wolves with Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The tick "Dermacentor pictus" also infests wolves. Other ectoparasites include chewing lice, sucking lice and the fleas "Pulex irritans" and "Ctenocephalides canis".


title: Wolf

text: Endoparasites known to infect wolves include: protozoans and helminths (flukes, tapeworms, roundworms and thorny-headed worms). Of 30,000 protozoan species, only a few have been recorded to infect wolves: "Isospora", "Toxoplasma", "Sarcocystis", "Babesia", and "Giardia". Some wolves carry "Neospora caninum", which can be spread to cattle and is correlated with bovine miscarriages. Among flukes, the most common in North American wolves is "Alaria", which infects small rodents and amphibians which are eaten by wolves. Upon reaching maturity, "Alaria" migrates to the wolf's intestine, but does little harm. "Metorchis conjunctus", which enters wolves through eating fish, infects the wolf's liver or gall bladder, causing liver disease, inflammation of the pancreas, and emaciation. Most other fluke species reside in the wolf's intestine, though "Paragonimus westermani" lives in the lungs. Tapeworms are commonly found in wolves, as their primary hosts are ungulates, small mammals, and fish, which wolves feed upon. Tapeworms generally cause little harm in wolves, though this depends on the number and size of the parasites, and the sensitivity of the host. Symptoms often include constipation, toxic and allergic reactions, irritation of the intestinal mucosa, and malnutrition. Infections by the tapeworm "Echinococcus granulosus" in ungulate populations tend to increase in areas with high wolf densities, as wolves can shed "Echinoccocus" eggs in their feces onto grazing areas.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves can carry over 30 roundworm species, though most roundworm infections appear benign, depending on the number of worms and the age of the host. "Ancylostoma caninum" attaches itself on the intestinal wall to feed on the host's blood, and can cause hyperchromic anemia, emaciation, diarrhea, and possibly death. "Toxocara canis", a hookworm known to infect wolf pups in the uterus, can cause intestinal irritation, bloating, vomiting, and diarrhea. Wolves may catch "Dioctophyma renale" from minks, which infects the kidneys, and can grow to lengths of . "D. renale" causes the complete destruction of the kidney's functional tissue and can be fatal if both kidneys are infected. Wolves can tolerate low levels of "Dirofilaria immitis" for many years without showing any ill effects, though high levels can kill wolves through cardiac enlargement and congestive hepatopathy. Wolves probably become infected with "Trichinella spiralis" by eating infected ungulates. Although "T. spiralis" is not known to produce clinical signs in wolves, it can cause emaciation, salivation, and crippling muscle pains in dogs. Thorny-headed worms rarely infect wolves, though three species have been identified in Russian wolves: "Nicolla skrjabini", "Macracanthorhynchus catulinus", and "Moniliformis moniliformis".


title: Wolf

text: The global wild wolf population in 2003 was estimated at 300,000. Wolf population declines have been arrested since the 1970s. This has fostered recolonization and reintroduction in parts of its former range as a result of legal protection, changes in land use, and rural human population shifts to cities. Competition with humans for livestock and game species, concerns over the danger posed by wolves to people, and habitat fragmentation pose a continued threat to the wolf. Despite these threats, the IUCN classifies the wolf as Least Concern on its Red List due to its relatively widespread range and stable population. The species is listed under AppendixII of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), meaning international trade in the species (including parts and derivatives) is regulated. However, populations of Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan are listed in AppendixI which prohibits commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens.


title: Wolf

text: In Canada, 50,000–60,000 wolves live in 80% of their historical range, making Canada an important stronghold for the species. Under Canadian law, First Nations people can hunt wolves without restrictions, but others must acquire licenses for the hunting and trapping seasons. As many as 4,000 wolves may be harvested in Canada each year. The wolf is a protected species in national parks under the Canada National Parks Act. In Alaska, 7,000–11,000 wolves are found on 85% of the state's area. Wolves may be hunted or trapped with a license; around 1,200 wolves are harvested annually.


title: Wolf

text: In the contiguous United States, wolf declines were caused by the expansion of agriculture, the decimation of the wolf's main prey species like the American bison, and extermination campaigns. Wolves were given protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, and have since returned to parts of their former range thanks to both natural recolonizations and reintroductions in Yellowstone and Idaho. The repopulation of wolves in Midwestern United States has been concentrated in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan where wolves number over 4,000 as of 2018. Wolves also occupy much of the northern Rocky Mountains region, with at least 1,704 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as of 2015. They have also established populations in Washington and Oregon. In Mexico and parts of the southwestern United States, the Mexican and U.S. governments collaborated from 1977 to 1980 in capturing all Mexican wolves remaining in the wild to prevent their extinction and established captive breeding programs for reintroduction.


title: Wolf

text: Europe, excluding Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, has 17,000 wolves in more than 28 countries. In many countries of the European Union, the wolf is strictly protected under the 1979 Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (AppendixII) and the 1992 Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (AnnexII andIV). There is extensive legal protection in many European countries, although there are national exceptions.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves have been persecuted in Europe for centuries, having been exterminated in Great Britain by 1684, in Ireland by 1770, in Central Europe by 1899, in France by the 1930s, and in much of Scandinavia by the early 1970s. They continued to survive in parts of Finland, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. Since 1980, European wolves have rebounded and expanded into parts of their former range. The decline of the traditional pastoral and rural economies seems to have ended the need to exterminate the wolf in parts of Europe. As of 2016, estimates of wolf numbers include: 4,000 in the Balkans, 3,460–3,849 in the Carpathian Mountains, 1,700–2,240 in the Baltic states, 1,100–2,400 in the Italian peninsula, and around 2,500 in the northwest Iberian peninsula as of 2007.


title: Wolf

text: In the former Soviet Union, wolf populations have retained much of their historical range despite Soviet-era large scale extermination campaigns. Their numbers range from 1,500 in Georgia, to 20,000 in Kazakhstan and up to 45,000 in Russia. In Russia, the wolf is regarded as a pest because of its attacks on livestock, and wolf management means controlling their numbers by destroying them throughout the year. Russian history over the past century shows that reduced hunting leads to an abundance of wolves. The Russian government has continued to pay bounties for wolves and annual harvests of 20–30% do not appear to significantly affect their numbers.


title: Wolf

text: In the Middle East, only Israel and Oman give wolves explicit legal protection. Israel has protected its wolves since 1954 and has maintained a moderately sized population of 150 through effective enforcement of conservation policies. These wolves have moved into neighboring countries. Approximately 300–600 wolves inhabit the Arabian Peninsula. The wolf also appears to be widespread in Iran. Turkey has an estimated population of about 7,000 wolves. Outside of Turkey, wolf populations in the Middle East may total 1,000–2,000.


title: Wolf

text: In southern Asia, the northern regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan are important strongholds for wolves. The wolf has been protected in India since 1972. The Indian wolf is distributed across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. As of 2019, it is estimated that there are around 2,000–3,000 Indian wolves in the country. In East Asia, Mongolia's population numbers 10,000–20,000. In China, Heilongjiang has roughly 650 wolves, Xinjiang has 10,000 and Tibet has 2,000. 2017 evidence suggests that wolves range across all of mainland China. Wolves have been historically persecuted in China but have been legally protected since 1998. The last Japanese wolf was captured and killed in 1905.


title: Wolf

text: The wolf is a common motif in the mythologies and cosmologies of peoples throughout its historical range. The Ancient Greeks associated wolves with Apollo, the god of light and order. The Ancient Romans connected the wolf with their god of war and agriculture Mars, and believed their city's founders, Romulus and Remus, were suckled by a she-wolf. Norse mythology includes the feared giant wolf Fenrir, and Geri and Freki, Odin's faithful pets.


title: Wolf

text: In Chinese astronomy, the wolf represents Sirius and guards the heavenly gate. In China, the wolf was traditionally associated with greed and cruelty and wolf epithets were used to describe negative behaviours such as cruelty ("wolf's heart"), mistrust ("wolf's look") and lechery ("wolf-sex"). In both Hinduism and Buddhism, the wolf is ridden by gods of protection. In Vedic Hinduism, the wolf is a symbol of the night and the daytime quail must escape from its jaws. In Tantric Buddhism, wolves are depicted as inhabitants of graveyards and destroyers of corpses.


title: Wolf

text: In the Pawnee creation myth, the wolf was the first animal brought to Earth. When humans killed it, they were punished with death, destruction and the loss of immortality. For the Pawnee, Sirius is the "wolf star" and its disappearance and reappearance signified the wolf moving to and from the spirit world. Both Pawnee and Blackfoot call the Milky Way the "wolf trail". The wolf is also an important crest symbol for clans of the Pacific Northwest like the Kwakwakaʼwakw.


title: Wolf

text: The concept of people turning into wolves, and the inverse, has been present in many cultures. One Greek myth tells of Lycaon being transformed into a wolf by Zeus as punishment for his evil deeds. The legend of the werewolf has been widespread in European folklore and involves people willingly turning into wolves to attack and kill others. The Navajo have traditionally believed that witches would turn into wolves by donning wolf skins and would kill people and raid graveyards. The Dena'ina believed wolves were once men and viewed them as brothers.


title: Wolf

text: Aesop featured wolves in several of his fables, playing on the concerns of Ancient Greece's settled, sheep-herding world. His most famous is the fable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", which is directed at those who knowingly raise false alarms, and from which the idiomatic phrase "to cry wolf" is derived. Some of his other fables concentrate on maintaining the trust between shepherds and guard dogs in their vigilance against wolves, as well as anxieties over the close relationship between wolves and dogs. Although Aesop used wolves to warn, criticize and moralize about human behaviour, his portrayals added to the wolf's image as a deceitful and dangerous animal. The Bible uses an image of a wolf lying with a lamb in a utopian vision of the future. In the New Testament, Jesus is said to have used wolves as illustrations of the dangers his followers, whom he represents as sheep, would face should they follow him.


title: Wolf

text: Isengrim the wolf, a character first appearing in the 12th-century Latin poem "Ysengrimus", is a major character in the Reynard Cycle, where he stands for the low nobility, whilst his adversary, Reynard the fox, represents the peasant hero. Isengrim is forever the victim of Reynard's wit and cruelty, often dying at the end of each story. The tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", first written in 1697 by Charles Perrault, is considered to have further contributed to the wolf's negative reputation in the Western world. The Big Bad Wolf is portrayed as a villain capable of imitating human speech and disguising itself with human clothing. The character has been interpreted as an allegorical sexual predator. Villainous wolf characters also appear in "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats". The hunting of wolves, and their attacks on humans and livestock, feature prominently in Russian literature, and are included in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Nikolay Nekrasov, Ivan Bunin, Leonid Pavlovich Sabaneyev, and others. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Chekhov's "Peasants" both feature scenes in which wolves are hunted with hounds and Borzois. The musical "Peter and the Wolf" involves a wolf being captured for eating a duck, but is spared and sent to a zoo.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves are among the central characters of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". His portrayal of wolves has been praised posthumously by wolf biologists for his depiction of them: rather than being villainous or gluttonous, as was common in wolf portrayals at the time of the book's publication, they are shown as living in amiable family groups and drawing on the experience of infirm but experienced elder pack members. Farley Mowat's largely fictional 1963 memoir "Never Cry Wolf" is widely considered to be the most popular book on wolves, having been adapted into a Hollywood film and taught in several schools decades after its publication. Although credited with having changed popular perceptions on wolves by portraying them as loving, cooperative and noble, it has been criticized for its idealization of wolves and its factual inaccuracies.


title: Wolf

text: Human presence appears to stress wolves, as seen by increased cortisol levels in instances such as snowmobiling near their territory.


title: Wolf

text: Livestock depredation has been one of the primary reasons for hunting wolves and can pose a severe problem for wolf conservation. As well as causing economic losses, the threat of wolf predation causes great stress on livestock producers, and no foolproof solution of preventing such attacks short of exterminating wolves has been found. Some nations help offset economic losses to wolves through compensation programs or state insurance. Domesticated animals are easy prey for wolves, as they have been bred under constant human protection, and are thus unable to defend themselves very well. Wolves typically resort to attacking livestock when wild prey is depleted. In Eurasia, a large part of the diet of some wolf populations consists of livestock, while such incidents are rare in North America, where healthy populations of wild prey have been largely restored.


title: Wolf

text: The majority of losses occur during the summer grazing period, untended livestock in remote pastures being the most vulnerable to wolf predation. The most frequently targeted livestock species are sheep (Europe), domestic reindeer (northern Scandinavia), goats (India), horses (Mongolia), cattle and turkeys (North America). The number of animals killed in single attacks varies according to species: most attacks on cattle and horses result in one death, while turkeys, sheep and domestic reindeer may be killed in surplus. Wolves mainly attack livestock when the animals are grazing, though they occasionally break into fenced enclosures.


title: Wolf

text: A review of the studies on the competitive effects of dogs on sympatric carnivores did not mention any research on competition between dogs and wolves. Competition would favour the wolf, which is known to kill dogs; however, wolves usually live in pairs or in small packs in areas with high human persecution, giving them a disadvantage when facing large groups of dogs.


title: Wolf

text: Wolves kill dogs on occasion, and some wolf populations rely on dogs as an important food source. In Croatia, wolves kill more dogs than sheep, and wolves in Russia appear to limit stray dog populations. Wolves may display unusually bold behaviour when attacking dogs accompanied by people, sometimes ignoring nearby humans. Wolf attacks on dogs may occur both in house yards and in forests. Wolf attacks on hunting dogs are considered a major problem in Scandinavia and Wisconsin. The most frequently killed hunting breeds in Scandinavia are Harriers, older animals being most at risk, likely because they are less timid than younger animals, and react to the presence of wolves differently. Large hunting dogs such as Swedish Elkhounds are more likely to survive wolf attacks because of their better ability to defend themselves.


title: Wolf

text: Although the number of dogs killed each year by wolves is relatively low, it induces a fear of wolves entering villages and farmyards to prey on them. In many cultures, dogs are seen as family members, or at least working team members, and losing one can lead to strong emotional responses such as demanding more liberal hunting regulations.


title: Wolf

text: Dogs that are employed to guard sheep help to mitigate human–wolf conflicts, and are often proposed as one of the non-lethal tools in the conservation of wolves. Shepherd dogs are not particularly aggressive, but they can disrupt potential wolf predation by displaying what is to the wolf ambiguous behaviours, such as barking, social greeting, invitation to play or aggression. The historical use of shepherd dogs across Eurasia has been effective against wolf predation, especially when confining sheep in the presence of several livestock guardian dogs. Shepherd dogs are sometimes killed by wolves.


title: Wolf

text: The fear of wolves has been pervasive in many societies, though humans are not part of the wolf's natural prey. How wolves react to humans depends largely on their prior experience with people: wolves lacking any negative experience of humans, or which are food-conditioned, may show little fear of people. Although wolves may react aggressively when provoked, such attacks are mostly limited to quick bites on extremities, and the attacks are not pressed.