Few other animals inspire such passion and hatred as the Wolf. For thousands of years they were America's most widely distributed predator. European colonists brought centuries-old animosity toward the wolf with them to North America, and as Americans and their livestock expanded west local predator control escalated into a full-scale wolf-eradication program. By the early 20th century, more than a million wolves had been poisoned, trapped, or shot. Pushed to the brink of extinction, the Wolf found protection under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) only to be stripped of that protection by the U.S. Congress in 2011. As rumors of a new wolf pack in the Pacific Northwest abound, Discovery Channel explores the sightings.
—Discovery