Oh right - Latvia! Total Werewolf, dude.

No really - pageing Shane. I have no idea.

Here's a Latvian Wolf:

≡ Click to see image ≡

oops, here it is.

I don't know much about your area. In the U.S., wolf sightings are called in to police and fish/game/wildlife staff frequently. They sometimes turn out to be feral dogs or large coyotes.

There's probably some governmental body you can call to say "I think I saw a wolf;" here, they log all suspected sightings and use the data to estimate populations. You will probably have an interesting conversation if you call and also ask "What are the chances that it is actually a wolf?" They (whoever 'they' are in your region) should be able to tell you how much land is required to sustain how many adults, the last time such a sighting was reported, and the estimated population in your region - stuff like that.

But it takes the vouchsafing of an expert to verify that the sighting was actually that of a wolf (or bear, or mountain lion, or other scary beast).

You're very lucky!

I'm no expert at all, but I've done a lot of research and I'm friends with some very cool "urban wildlife" specialists.

It's more likely a coyote, but nothing to worry about either way. They're lazy like us and want the easiest food they can find, which is usually mice and moles and other small rodents, squirrels, carrion, garbage fruit... A wolf pack will take deer or caribou, mostly fawns or the sick or very old, but who wants to work that hard?

...would it just jaunt out of its area to the garbage bins to look for a snack?

Yup, probably. Securing garbage cans tightly and removing food sources are the best ways to keep nature in the woods.

Really, it doesn't want anything to do with you, but who doesn't love free food? You know, like, in an office cubicle farm, when everybody goes all feral hyena waiting for an executive lunch to be over so they can claim their share of the remains.
;-)

I wouldn't tempt fate by leaving a small, old infirm dog tied out all night, but otherwise you've nothing to worry about.

-Is the forest to the north of my apartment complex large enough to support at least a couple wolves?
-How rural/large does a plot of land need to be to support a wolf?

I really don't know, especially these days when development keeps crowding out nature, but wolves like a lot of land. My damn dial-up is having trouble loading the Google map of your area. That close to apartments, though, it's not likely to be a wolf, or if it was, you're not likely to see it again.

I don't know what the minimum territory size is for a wolf or wolf pack. Coyotes are much more adaptable and can probably live in much smaller areas, and they hide themselves very well and will even pack up and move a den if they know it has been discovered. I don't know if anyone knows reliably how little territory wolves will tolerate, but most estimates will tell you that one to three wolves need AT LEAST 25 square miles of nature.

I would not call your local police or Latvia's version of the Department of Wildlife unless you see him/her again and s/he directly confronts and threatens someone (unlikely!) Whatever the critter was, please do it that favor. In the U.S. at least, the DOWs live to raise hysteria about rabies and coyotes and wolves just to justify their own jobs, and they cater to hunters because they're completely funded by hunting licenses. I've listened to speeches by DOW biologists (or "biostitutes," prostitute biologists, as we like to call them) and once politely picked apart a biostitute's claim that American coyotes were reducing fox populations... The guy admitted he had NO reliable evidence and he even thanked myself and the people with me, saying he usually is never challenged on anything he says. I think he feels a little guilty for toeing the party line constantly to keep himself in a job.

Why not have some fun and look for tracks? Buy a book (I blew $40 on this--it's brilliant... Shane crack!) or Google for some pictures first. Take photos. It's tough to tell wolf from dog from coyote tracks, but wolf tracks are obviously bigger than most dog tracks. The toes of dog tracks are often much more splayed. And coyote tracks are the most distinct, usually being much thinner and more streamlined than dog tracks, with two toe tracks out front and the other two lagging further behind the front two than on wolf or dog tracks.

Again, I'm no Grizzly Adams, but I once spent most of a day following coyote tracks out on the frozen ice of Lake Erie. They went for miles. It was amazing, and frustrating too because they could go places on the ice I couldn't, so I had to keep circling around to pick up the trail. I guess they forage out there. I realized they were coyote tracks when they circled and circled in an area where I found something that looked like a chunk of rock-hard, dry, dead "fish jerky,", LOL. Maybe dead fish get pushed out of the water when the waves crush the huge chunks of ice together by the shore, creating beautiful ice sculptures I like to photograph. I could never find their den, even though there was very little wooded area around that area of the beach. Then again, they could have traveled from miles away. But even that biostitue and I agreed on how tough it is to find a coyote den and we both talked about it with a sense of wonder.

Here's something for you: Some people believe there's heavy evidence of "wolf dogs" in Latvia. Wolf/dog (and wolf/coyote) breeding cycles really don't synch up well, so that's always a controversial subject. More and more people in America are believing that wolves and coyotes have interbred (and produced the "red wolf" and probably many other steps in between the two species), and I think Native Americans have always felt that way.

Well, thanks for listening to some long rambles (if anyone did.) And don't worry!

Do yourself a favor and go read Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf now (and forget the film, although it's enjoyable.) And if you're interested in Coyotes, read God's Dog by Hope Ryden. They're good starting places!
:-)

I grew up in wolf area and have been within five feet of wolves on more than one occasion. We used to go up to Lake Superior Provincial Park at night to call wolves. They won't hurt you.

It's totally possible.

One night in 2001 when my parents were briefly living in Stockholm, a wolf trotted calmly right up the middle of the city. He crossed several bridges and finally headed off into some woods to the north.

The police kept an eye on him and everyone left him alone.

I thought coyotes were pretty much a New World thing, from Canada down to Mexico -- didn't realize there were Eurasian ones, althought the niche would certainly need to be filled by something between a fox and a wolf, I guess.

Wow, awesome answers, especially resident lupophile shane!

My students think it was a "hunting dog", whatever that means.