Wolf Facts
The wolf is the largest wild dog. It is almost twice the
size of a coyote, standing 32 inches high at the shoulder. They measure 57-76 inches from nose to tail tip, and weigh anywhere from 70-120 pounds. Female wolves are
smaller than males. Adult paw prints are 4 inches long and 3.75 inches wide. Wolves have a double layer of fur. A wooly underfur grows very thick in the fall and winter and
keeps the wolf warm, while an outer layer of guard hairs repel snow and water, and keeps the underfur dry so it can trap air as an insulator.
A wolf has excellent vision, a keen sense of smell, and fine hearing. A wolf can see and smell a deer more than a mile away. Wolves have 42 teeth, including four fangs at the front of the mouth that are used to wound, grab, and kill prey. The fangs may measure up to 2 inches long from root to tip. The wolf has a large stomach and can eat as much as 20 pounds of food at one time. But, wolves can also go without food for two weeks or longer.
The natural causes of wolf death are primarily starvation which takes mostly pups, and death from other wolves in territorial disputes. Except for a few germs and parasites, bears are sometimes enemies of wolves. Even today humans have the greatest potential for decimating the wolf populations. In captivity, wolves live about 16 years. In the wild, most wolves die before they are 8 years old, but some live to be 13.
Wolves are carnivores, and are at the top of the food chain. They usually prey on the dominant or most vulnerable large mammal in their
environment. Wolves hunt mostly large hoofed animals like: deer, elk, moose, bison, and caribou. Wolves do not eat humans. Because most of the prey that wolves hunt is
much bigger than themselves, it is only by hunting in groups and cooperating that wolves can catch enough food to survive. They usually catch animals that are sick, injured,
very old, or very young, because they are easier to catch.
Wolves hunt at any time of the day or night. Wolves roam through their territory until they find prey. They move in on an animal by traveling toward it in the opposite direction that the wind blowing. This method prevents the animal from smelling the wolves. The wolves quietly inch closer to their prey , sometimes in single file. Then they break into a run, and the chase begins. Wolves hunt and chase many more animals than they can catch. 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. Then they grab the victim by the snout. Wolves usually kill a large animal in only a few minutes. But the entire hunt may take several hours.
Wolves have one breeding season each year, from mid-January
to the end of February. Sixty- three days after mating, usually in April, the mother wolf will have a litter of 4 to 6 pups. They are born in an underground den that she has dug.
At birth the pups weigh only 1 pound and can't see, hear, smell, or keep warm by themselves. At birth the pups have short, dark brown fur which gradually lightens in color at about three months of age.
Virtually all pack members contribute in raising pups. The mother spends most of her time in the den with the pups for the first week, then gradually extends the time she spends away from them. The mother feeds them her milk, and the other pack members bring food to the den for her to eat. If more than one combined litter and are tended and nursed by all mothers.
Pups grow quickly. About 12 to 15 days after they are born they open their eyes. By 2 weeks of age the pups can walk, and about a week after that they may come out of the den for the first time. When pups are 6 months old they look almost like adult wolves. Around this time they start hunting with the rest of the pack.
Wolves love to play. They chase each other and roll around the way dog puppies do. Pups have been observed playing with "toys" like bones, feathers, or the skins of dead animals. They "kill" the toys over and over again and carry them around as "trophies." As they get bigger they begin to hunt small animals, like rabbits. This is all good practice for the day they join the pack for their first real hunt for large animals.
Wolves are social animals, living together in family groups called packs. A pack is usually a family group of wolves with a pair of adult parents and
their offspring of perhaps the last 2 or 3 years. The adult parents are usually unrelated, if not always. Generally six or eight wolves per pack, but in Alaska and Northwestern
Canada some packs have included over 30 members. The average travel of a wolf is 10 to 15 miles per day, but some travel over 30 miles in a day. Their usually travel speed is
about 5 miles per hour. Some wolves have dispersed from Minnesota into Canada over 500 miles. In Minnesota, territories range from about 25 square miles per pack to 150
square miles per pack, but in Alaska and Canada, territory sizes range from 200 to 1,000 square miles each.
One of the most important and interesting ways wolves communicate is through "body language." A wolf pack is very organized, and the wolves in the pack live
by certain rules. The biggest rule is that there are leaders and there are followers. The leaders of the pack are the Alpha male and the Alpha female, father and mother of the
pack. They are usually the biggest, strongest, and the smartest wolves in the pack. Most of the time the other pack members do what the Alphas want them to do. This is
called dominance. The Alpha pair communicates their dominance with their bodies by carrying their tails high and standing tall. The less dominant wolves keep their tails low
and often lower their bodies while pawing at the higher ranking wolves. If two wolves have a disagreement, they may show their teeth and growl at each other. Both wolves
try to look as fierce as they can. Usually the less dominant wolf, the subordinate one, gives up before there is actually a fight. To show that it gives up, the wolf rolls over
on it's back and the other wolf stands over it. These dominance rules help keep wolves in a pack from fighting among themselves and hurting each other.
Wolves communicate other things with their bodies, also. If they are angry, they may stick their ears straight up and bare their teeth. A wolf who is suspicious will pull its ears back and squint. Fear is often shown by flattening their ears against the head. A wolf who wants to play will dance around and put the front of its body down, while leaving the back part up in the air.
Wolves have a wide variety of vocalizations. They use howls for long distance communication. Wolves don't just howl at the moon. They will howl any time of the day, but they are most often heard in the evening because that is when the pack is most active. They howl to find other pack members, to let outside wolves know where their territory is, or to get the pack excited and ready to hunt. Sometimes it seems like they howl just for fun. Wolves also bark to warn other pack members of danger or to challenge an enemy. They often growl in dominance disputes or other kinds of fights. Barks and growls are generally aggressive vocalizations. Wolves make a squeaking noise to call the pups and the pups' mother will whimper to calm them down.
Wolves used to live throughout most of the united states. Now
they only live in a few places. Alaska has 5,000 to 7,000 wolves. In northern Minnesota there are close to 2,000. There are also about 180 in Wisconsin and Michigan and about
100 in the western United States. In most states, wolves are on the Endangered Species List. Attempts are being made to reintroduce wolves to their former territory to serve
as natural predators for deer, elk, and other hoofed animals with burgeoning populations.
There are many reasons why wolves came close to extinction. Most people used to be afraid of wolves and thought that they were dangerous to humans. For a long time, people tried to kill all the wolves. They would get money for bringing in a dead wolf. They also worried that the wolves would eat all of their livestock: cows, sheep, pigs, etc. So they poisoned wolves whenever they could. Poisoning is probably the main reason there are so few wolves left today. Another reason has to do with the growing human population. People need land in order to live and raise their families. Wolves need lots of land, away from humans, to live and rise their families. As our population has grown, the amount of wilderness where wolves can live has gotten smaller. To help protect the wolf, we need to help protect the wilderness that is left.
Wolves are not dangerous to people at all. They are very shy animals, and are afraid of people, avoiding us whenever possible. Even though people are expanding into the few remaining areas where wolves are found in large numbers, there has never been a documented case of a healthy wild wolf deliberately attacking a person in North America.
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