This time of year, the sound of a wolf howl piercing the night can really send shivers up your spine. But that call of the wild isn’t meant to scare you; it’s actually a message to other wolves.

For the first time in over 10,000 years, the howl of a dire wolf is echoing once more—this time, from within a secretive nature preserve in the United States. The predator, long thought extinct and ...