As a native family of American animals, for more than five million years wolves of various kinds have been keystone predators of western ecologies. Before humans arrived they shaped the West more than any other mammal species. Numerous, nearly tame, and admired by Native people, wolves continued this role until the arrival of people from the Old World initiated a continent-wide war against wolves. While wolf pelts became a target of the western market hunt, into the early 20th century most wolves were destroyed by bounty hunters and “wolfers,” who trapped and poisoned hundreds of thousands of wolves at the behest of livestock associations and state governments. Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck: https://www.instagram.com/velvetbuckwine ---------------- Check out the gear the MeatEater Crew uses in the field here: https://store.themeateater.com Follow us: Web: https://www.themeateater.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/meateater Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater Chapters: 0:00 - Wolf West: How Wolves Shaped America for Millions of Years 5:43 - Dire Wolves, Gray Wolves and the Great Pleistocene Extinction 10:57 - Native Americans and the Wolf as Keystone Predator 16:49 - Why European Colonists Feared Wolves 21:52 - The Wolf Eradication Campaign Begins 25:30 - Strychnine: Chemical Warfare Against Western Wolves 30:58 - Montana Pays Bounties on Over 100,000 Wolves 35:05 - The Wolf Attack Myth: No Documented Cases in American History 40:20 - Wolf Hysteria Stories and Livestock Propaganda 46:02 - Why Wolves and Coyotes Are Mortal Enemies 51:19 - Dire Wolf De-Extinction: Science and Culture Debate