Wolf

Wolf is one of the largest members of the dog family. Wolves are expert hunters and prey chiefly on large hoofed animals, such as caribou, deer, elk, and moose. Many people fear wolves. They believe wolves attack human beings, and the animal’s eerie howl frightens them. But wolves avoid people as much as possible and are rarely dangerous to human beings.

Most wolves belong to a species called the gray wolf. Two local names for gray wolves are the timber wolf and the tundra wolf. The timber wolf lives in wooded subarctic regions. Some tundra wolves are also called Arctic wolves; their fur is white. They make their home on the treeless plains of the Arctic.

The red wolf once lived throughout the southern United States . Today, however, only a few hundred red wolves remain, most of them in captivity. Some zoologists once thought the red wolf belongs to the same species as the gray wolf. However, zoologists now believe that the red wolf is a separate species. Some zoologists think that the eastern wolf should also be considered a separate species. It is similar to the red wolf but limited to the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.

Wolves can live in almost any climate, though they are seldom found in tropical forests. In ancient times, they roamed throughout the northern half of the world. But wherever large numbers of people settled, they destroyed wolves. As a result, wolves disappeared from most of their original range by 1950. Since that time, wolves have become reestablished in some portions of the northern United States and in several areas of Europe. However, most wolves still live in sparsely populated regions of northern Canada, and of Europe.

The body of a wolf

Wolves look much like large German shepherd dogs. But a wolf has longer legs, bigger feet, a wider head, and a long, bushy tail. Most adult male wolves weigh from 75 to 120 pounds (34 to 54 kilograms). They measure from 5 to 6 ¹/₂ feet (1.5 to 2 meters) long, including the tail, and are about 2 ¹/₂ feet (76 centimeters) tall at the shoulder. Female wolves are smaller than males.

The fur of a wolf varies in color from pure white in the Arctic to jet black in the subarctic forests. Most wolves have gray fur. Wolves of the northern and Arctic regions grow long, thick winter coats that protect them from the bitter cold.

A wolf has excellent senses of vision, smell, and hearing. These senses help the animal locate prey. A wolf can hear and smell a deer more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away.

A wolf has 42 teeth, including 4 fangs at the front of the mouth that are used to wound, grab, and kill prey. The fangs may measure up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) long from root to tip. The small front teeth are used to nibble and pull at skin. The sharp side teeth cut easily through tough muscle. The flat back teeth crush thick bone so it can be swallowed.

The wolf has a large stomach and can eat as much as 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of food at one time. However, a wolf can go without food for two weeks or longer.

The life of a wolf

Wolves live in family groups called packs. Most packs have about 8 members, but some have more than 20. Zoologists believe the members of a pack remain together—provided they have enough food to eat—because they have strong affection for one another. Most maturing wolves leave the pack. Such wolves, called dispersers, travel alone until they can find a mate. The wolf and its mate may then have pups, forming a new pack.

Habits.

Each wolf pack has a social order called a dominance hierarchy. Every member of the pack has a certain rank, or place, in the hierarchy. High-ranking members, called dominant wolves, dominate low-ranking members, known as subordinate wolves. A dominant wolf and a subordinate wolf show their rank almost every time they meet. In a confrontation, the dominant wolf stands erect, holds its tail aloft, and points its ears up and forward. It may show its teeth and growl. The subordinate wolf crouches, holds its tail between its legs, and turns down its ears. It may also whine.

A pack lives within a specific area called a territory. Wolves claim a territory by marking it with their scent. The leader of the pack urinates on rocks, trees, and other objects along the boundaries of the area. Other wolves can then recognize the boundaries, and individual packs usually remain within their own territory. If wolves from another pack trespass, they may be attacked and killed. See Territoriality.

Studies indicate that the size of the territory depends mainly on the availability of prey. If prey is scarce, the territory may cover more than 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers). If prey is plentiful, the area may be less than 30 square miles (80 square kilometers).

Young.

Wolves mate at only one time each year, during the winter. The female carries her young inside her body for about 63 days. She then gives birth to 1 to 11 pups in a sheltered area called a den. The den may be in a cave, a hollow log, an abandoned beaver lodge, or underground.

Wolf pups weigh about 1 pound (0.5 kilogram) at birth and are blind, deaf, and helpless. At first, they live on only the mother’s milk. When they are about 3 weeks old, they begin to eat meat and to leave the den for short periods. Adult wolves provide the pups with meat. An adult eats much meat after killing an animal. To get some of this meat, the pups lick the mouth of the adult wolf. The adult coughs up the meat, and the pups eat it.

Wolf pups leave the den permanently when they are about 2 months old. The pups move to an unsheltered area that is called a rendezvous site, and they remain there during the summer while the adults hunt and bring back food. In the fall, the quickly growing pups and the adults begin to hunt together as a pack.

How wolves hunt.

Wolves roam through their territory until they find prey. They then move in on the prey. They may inch closer to it, positioning themselves for the attack. Then they break into a run, and the chase begins.

Wolves hunt and chase many more animals than they can catch. Wolves eat almost any animal they can catch. Many of the animals they hunt, such as caribou and elk, are faster and stronger than wolves. Therefore, wolves must be quick and tireless to catch their prey.

Wolves hunt at any time of the day or night but tend to hunt more in the evening, night, and early morning. If wolves can catch their prey, they attack the rump or sides of the animal. They try to wound the animal and make it bleed until it weakens. They may grab the victim by the throat or snout. Wolves may kill a small animal in only a few minutes or less, but large prey may require many days to weaken after an initial attack. The wolves may give up if the animal is strong, such as a healthy moose or bison. They will also abandon the hunt if the prey is able to outrun them.

Wolves generally attack the prey that are easiest to kill. In addition to the very young, this includes small, sick, injured, or aged individuals. Over time, wolves can help strengthen prey populations by killing these animals. Killing diseased prey, for example, helps to prevent the spread of disease to other animals. Also, when wolves consistently remove small individuals, the prey species may develop larger size. Thus, hunting by wolves helps to direct the evolution (development over time) of prey species.

Wolves and people

Many people despise the wolf because it kills other animals. Farmers and ranchers face losses when wolves kill sheep, cattle, and other livestock. Many hunters dislike the wolf because it kills game animals, such as elk and deer. These hunters mistakenly think that wolves wipe out game in certain areas, although that belief is seldom correct.

Fables and folklore also have contributed to the wolf’s bad reputation. In many old sayings, the animal is a symbol of badness or evil. For example, “to keep the wolf from the door” means to prevent hunger or poverty. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” describes a person who acts friendly but has evil intentions. Fables pass on the misleading notion that wolves attack people. In the story of Little Red Riding Hood, for example, a wolf tries to eat a little girl.

Hatred and fear of wolves have led people to destroy large numbers of them. Government poisoning programs once helped exterminate wolves in the United States and other countries. Bounties (rewards) were sometimes offered for the deaths of wolves.

Gray wolves disappeared from most areas of the United States in the 1900’s. As a result of protective measures and improved public attitudes, wolf populations have recovered in some areas. Wolves have been reintroduced into other areas, such as Yellowstone National Park, in the northwest corner of the state of Wyoming. In the United States, the red wolf remains critically endangered, existing in only one area of North Carolina, a southeastern coastal state. The Mexican wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf, has been reintroduced into the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico. In addition to remote areas, wolves have become reestablished in some areas with considerable human activity, such as the northern European countries of Sweden and Norway. But such recovery has occurred only in areas where forests provide wolves with protection and some seclusion.