Moon Wolf

Grey wolves are important apex predators that keep the balance by managing the populations of grazing animals. Wolf packs once roamed the North American continent from coast to coast, but their range and numbers have been diminished by habitat destruction and misguided extirpation campaigns, leading to boom-bust cycles in deer populations and allowing disease to spread unchecked among ungulates. Aldo Leopold, an influential environmentalist author, wrote in his essay "Thinking Like a Mountain" about imbalance in the absence of wolves: "Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers." While some subspecies have been lost forever, reintroduction and breeding programs have brought these majestic hunters back from the brink of extinction. Show your support for their continued rebound and expansion with this cool design featuring a grey wolf, crescent moon and wild horses.  Artwork by Tracy Brooks Design # 1585 1585t 1585p 1585r