The Nature Of Wolves

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THE NATURE OF WOLVES

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The Nature of Wolves

Introduction

There is very little knowledge in the public about the nature of wolves. From my own personal knowledge and from doing research I would like to inform the public about the wolf and help them to understand that the idea of the little red riding hood wolf, which attacks humans, doesn't really exist. Information is the key to successful wolf ad-vocacy. There are now a few small wolf populations scattered throughout the United States. As the federal government edges closer to desisting the wolf, as an endangered species, those populations will face multiplying dangers. We must make sure that the next generation carries on with wolf recovery. The best way to do that is through educa-tion.

The wolf has the most sophisticated social organization of any animal outside the primate world. Wolves are members of the scientific family Canidae, or the dog family, which also includes coyotes, foxes, jackals and domestic dogs. The wolf was given the scientific name Canis lupusby Carolus Linnaeus in the 1700's, and it is still referred to as that today. (encyclopedia.com)

Most male wolves weigh between 70-100 pounds and females usually weigh be-tween 55-90 pounds. An adult male is usually 3 feet high at the shoulder and about four feet long not including the tail. Females are smaller. The adult wolf can run up to 35 miles per hour. When hunting they can maintain a speed of 20 miles per hour for many

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hours. They can clear a 16-foot fence in a single bound. The wolf's sense of smell is about one hundred times greater than a human's (caniade.ca)

In captivity, most wolves will live to be thirteen or fourteen years old. However, wolves in the wild sometimes live to be ten years old. Most don't live past five years of age. This is because of disease, injuries and parasites. Also unfortunately, man causes a lot of wolf mortality from legal and illegal hunting, trapping and collisions with cars.

Wolves come in many colors, but the majority are various shades of gray. Wolves can also be solid white, cream or black. The dark coats of the black wolves will often fade, as they get older. It is not unusual for there to be varying colors in the same litter. Black, cream colored or white colored wolves can be born to parents with coats that are gray.

Wolves usually live in packs. The number of wolves in a pack can vary because of the birth of pups and death. However many packs contain four to seven wolves. They are territorial and their territories can be twenty-five square miles up to five hundred square miles. The size of the territory depends on how available the prey is.

A wolf's survival depends on silent and fast movement. They run on only their toes unlike most animals that run with their feet flat. Wolves are carnivores. This means they live almost exclusively off meat. When hunting in a pack, wolves often try to cap-ture and kill large animals such as deer, moose, caribou, bison, wild sheep, wild goats or musk oxen. They will also eat smaller animals like beavers, rabbits, fish, muskrats, rac-coons, ground squirrels, mice and birds. Wolves hunting alone often catch such animals. When especially hungry, they will also eat insects, earthworms, or garbage. They will

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also eat berries or nuts, but none of these items make up a significant part of a wolf's diet. Wolves will sometimes turn to eating domestic livestock. This is one of the pri-mary reasons they were gotten rid of from much of their former North American terri-tory. (wolfology.com)

Wolves communicate by howling to each other. Despite popular belief, they do no howl just for the sake of howling at the moon. In addition,