But wolves and humans have a long adversarial history. Though they almost never attack humans, wolves are considered one of the animal world's most fearsome natural villains.
They do attack domestic animals, and countless wolves have been shot, trapped, and poisoned because of this tendency. In the lower 48 states, gray wolves were hunted to near extinction, though some populations survived and others have since been reintroduced. Few gray wolves survive in Europe, though many live in Alaska, Canada, and Asia.
Wolves live and hunt in packs of around six to ten animals. They are known to roam large distances, perhaps 12 miles in a single day. These social animals cooperate on their preferred prey—large animals such as deer, elk, and moose. When they are successful, wolves do not eat in moderation. A single animal can consume 20 pounds of meat at a sitting. Wolves also eat smaller mammals, birds, fish, lizards, snakes, and fruit.
Wolfpacks are established according to a strict hierarchy, with a dominant male at the top and his mate not far behind. Usually this male and female are the only animals of the pack to breed. All of a pack's adults help to care for young pups by bringing them food and watching them while others hunt. All rights reserved. Wolves With their piercing looks and spine-tingling howls, wolves inspire both adoration and controversy around the world.
Find out how many wolf species exist, the characteristics that make each wolf's howl unique, and how the wolf population in the continental United States nearly became extinct.
Common Name: Gray Wolf. Scientific Name: Canis lupus. Type: Mammals. Diet: Carnivore. Gray wolves and their relatives, red foxes, have the largest natural range of any land-based mammal besides humans and possibly some rodents.
Even with their habitat and population severely constricted by human activity, various subspecies of gray wolves can be found in North America, Europe, and Asia, and as far north as the Canadian Arctic and as far south as India.
As their range indicates, gray wolves are able to live in many biomes, from Arctic tundra to dense forests, to mountains, to dry shrublands.
Wolves live in tight social units known as packs. The basic unit of a pack is a monogamous breeding pair. Beyond the founding male and female, wolf packs include their most recent litter, their offspring from previous years, and occasionally unrelated wolves.
The average size is about 6, but packs exceeding 30 members have been observed. The breeding pair was once referred to as the alpha male and female, but some researchers believe that wolf hierarchy is not as rigid as those terms imply.
In rare circumstances, if a pack faces a high mortality rate or if there is an abundance of prey, other wolves in the pack may breed. Wolves mate once a year, generally in early spring. Pregnant females have a gestation period of about 63 days and produce litters of about four to seven pups. After about 10 weeks, pups are weaned and become part of the pack. After a year or two a pup, now a young wolf, may leave in search of its own territory, or it may stay with the pack. Body language, such as eye contact, facial expressions, posture, and tail positions, can have specific meanings.
Wolves also use sounds—whimpers, whines, barks, and howls—and scent marking to communicate with pack mates and strange wolves in their territory. Strengthening the hierarchical relationship in a pack may lead to physical conflict, but wolves try to avoid injuring members of their pack.
Companionable behavior is much more common: wolves have been observed bringing food to incapacitated pack mates, and relating to dead pack mates in a way that suggests mourning. Territory fights with other wolves and scuffles with large prey can lead to injuries and death, and wolves are subject to diseases like Lyme disease, and those endemic to canids, like canine mange, parvovirus, and distemper.
Their eyes will change to a yellow-gold or orange colour when the pups are 8 — 16 weeks old. Though extremely unusual, it is possible for an adult wolf to retain its blue-coloured eyes.
Wolves can live to be between 8 — 13 years. In the wild, Grey Wolves live about 6 to 8 years and sometimes up to 13 years. In zoos, Grey Wolves may live up to 17 years. Grey wolves are carnivores. Their natural diet is solely meat and they often prey on animals larger than they are including — deer, moose, caribou, elk, bison and musk-oxen as well small animals such as beaver, hares and other small rodents. Grey wolves live in packs, which have complex social structures that include the breeding adult pair the alpha male and female and their offspring.
A hierarchy of dominant and subordinate animals within the pack help it to function as a unit. Wolves communicate by scent-marking, vocalizing including howling , facial expressions and body postures. For more information see Wolf Behaviour. Grey Wolves can also be found in Alaska, Canada, as well as Russia and a few eastern European countries. Mexican wolves have been reintroduced in New Mexico and Arizona.
Historically, Grey wolves have the largest range of any land mammal, other than people. Grey wolves have lived in all habitats in the Northern Hemisphere except for tropical forest. Grey wolves tend to occupy forests, tundra and grassy plains as well as deserts and mountains. The illegal killing of Grey wolves has become a major threat to their survival.
Another serious problem is human invasion into wolf territory, which leads to habitat loss for wolves. There are many Wolf Conservation programs and organisations which are currently in progress trying to protect wolves around the world.
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