near populated areas. 39,960 cyanide guns, 106,100 cyanide cartridges and 628,000 strychnine pellets were distributed. Up to 17,500 wolves were poisoned in Canada between 1955 and 1961. In the mid-1950s, wolf bounties were dropped in the western provinces in favor of hiring provincial hunters. Quebec's wolf bounties ended in 1971 and Ontario in 1972. Overall, 20,000 wolves were bountied between 1935 and 1955 in British Columbia, 12,000 between 1942 and 1955 in Alberta and 33,000 between 1947 and 1971 in Ontario. Unlike wolf populations in the lower 48 states, which declined steadily as settlers moved west, the Canadian wolf population fluctuated between growth and decline, largely because the human population in Canada never reached the same level as in the lower 48, thus leaving large areas of land free for the wolves. Unlike European wolf hunts which were usually reserved for the nobility, North American wolf hunts were partaken by ordinary citizens, nearly all of them possessing firearms, thus the extermination of wolves in the lower 48 states was carried out in far less time than in Europe. By the 1960s the population of wolves decreased dramatically because people in North America have hunted wolves for a variety of purposes. For example, wolf hunting allowed people to acquire fur, which was further used in a variety of practical ways. It also allowed people to gain control over the spread of diseases transmitted by the animals and enabled people to better protect their livestock. The circumstances finally started to change in the 1960s, as people finally start to realise that the wolf population had reached a crucially low point and had to be saved and put under the legal protection of the government. Environmental movement was transforming the public views on the issue and that was the starting point of the wolf population recovery. United States federal government took the issue under its control and enacted the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to help protect and restore the wolf population. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 restricted the killing of wolves and labeled them as endangered animals in 48 contiguous states. The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was one of the main subspecies to be classified as endangered, along with others such as the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf, Eastern Timber wolf, as well as Red wolf and Mexican wolf. Since the wolf recovery journey began, under the protection of the law, wolf