Scientific Name: Canis lupus. Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum:
Chordata. Class: Mammalia.
Order: Carnivora. Family:Canidae
Breeding: Grey Wolves breed once a year between
January and April, depending on where they live; northern populations breed
later in the season than southern populations.
Female and male wolves reach
sexual maturity between 2 and 3 years. Unlike
domestic dogs (every six months)a female wolf goes into oestrus only once a
year; for 5 to 14 days.
When a
female wolf chooses a mate, it usually initiates a life-long bond; and mates do
spend a lot of time together.
After mating, the female digs a den (using a cave or tree
base) in which the pups are born; and where she will raise them; for the next
several weeks. The gestation period
lasts 60 to 63 days, and a litter will be on average 7 pups.
The pups are born blind and deaf, so they are completely
reliant on their parents and pack to raise them. The time until weaning period is about 45
days. For the first 3 weeks the female
stays exclusively with the pups and then all members of the pack help to raise
them.
Pups are fed
regurgitated food for the first 45 days; afterwards, they are fed meat. Since all members of the pack care for them,
the pups also become socialised and bond with the pack. At about 10 months old, the pups start to
hunt with the pack.
Their geographic range was mainly in the Northern hemisphere
spanning from the Arctic towards South America and Southern Asia. Today due to habitat destruction and environmental
changes, the Grey Wolf is found only in the United States of North America
(mainly Alaska), Canada, Mexico, and Eurasia. Unfortunately, by the mid-1930s,
the killing of wolves greatly reduced the Grey Wolf population in the United
States to parts of Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin and
Wyoming. Today, Minnesota has the largest wolf population of any lower United
States of North America state!
Distribution
and geographic range of Grey Wolves: Occurs mainly in the Northern
hemisphere spanning from the Arctic towards South America and Southern
Asia. Today due to habitat destruction
and environmental changes, the Grey Wolf is found only in the United States of
North America, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and Eurasia.
Unfortunately, for
all concerned, by the mid-1930s, the killing of wolves greatly reduced the Grey
Wolf population in the United States to parts of Alaska, Idaho, Michigan,
Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Habitat: Wolves
are highly adaptable to most habitat types except tropical rainforests and arid
deserts. Wolves can be found in savannahs,
taiga, tundra, plains, steppes, and all forest habitats.
Description: Wolves are generally not near as large as
people tend to believe. Adult male wolves average only about 95-100 pounds,
while adult females average 80-85 pounds.
The heaviest wolf ever reported
was 175 pounds. Male body length averages from 5- 6 ½ feet (from nose to
tail tip), and females average from 4 ½- 6 feet. Most wolves have a height of between 26 and
32 inches. The wolf’s fur colour also
Diet: Wolves are carnivores and they hunt individually, in
packs, or by stealing the prey of other predators. Their diet often consists of
beavers,
lemmings, mice, rabbits, voles, and other smaller mammals. They also eat
ungulates (large hoofed mammals) like elk, deer, caribou and moose, when and IF
available. As their diet depends on the availability and vulnerability of
this prey in their area; they are known to scavenge on carrion.
In late fall,(usually prior to mating season) lone wolves
will hunt smaller animals, and packs will take down larger prey. Scavenging
supplements their diet, especially during denning and pack activities. Unlike their human counterparts, Wolves
will make full use of the carcass, including hair and bones, and can eat up
to 19.8 pounds of meat in one feeding.
On a zoo diet,(human beans always
have to attempt turning carnivores in to herbivores and herbivores into carnivores
or omnivores) the wolves are fed dog kibble and meat.
Behaviour: The Grey
Wolf is a highly social animal, and their pack size can vary a lot, but are
usually made up of 5-12 members. However,
packs can be made up of 20 or more members; these packs often eventually split
up into smaller groups. Packs have
complex social structures; there is a dominance hierarchy with a top male or
female serving as the pack leader.
Females
are just as likely to be the pack leader as males are.
Pack leaders track and hunt prey, choose den sites, and
establish the pack’s territory.
Individual positions and interactions within the pack reflect status and
privilege. Ranks are also not permanent
and contests are most intense during the winter breeding period.
It is suggested that the division of labour in a pack’s
social organisation involves the females
primarily engaged in pup care and defence,
Wolves use both chemical and vocal methods to mark territory
and communicate. Scent marking (usually
with urine) is mainly used for marking territory, which is site-specific and
long-term, while howling is a more immediate territory marker. Marking
territories by urine, anal gland secretions, and scratch marks help to avoid
conflicts between packs, warning other packs of alien territories. Scent marking
can also communicate sex and reproductive state. Other communication is through facial
expressions and posture, such as crouching or rolling over to show the
stomach. These are fixed states of behaviour
that are recognised by other wolves as conveying moods of alertness,
aggression, submission, etch.
Adaptations: The grey wolf is an excellent runner and its
body and limbs are well adapted for this purpose. Wolves are digitigrades, so
when they walk only their toes touch the ground. The
front foot has 5 toes; the first toe is rudimentary and does not touch the
ground, while the hind foot has 4 toes.
Their canine teeth are also perfect for puncturing and slashing flesh,
picking meat off of bones, and their premolars and rear molars are capable of
crushing bones. The wolf’s large, simple
stomach is also better adapted to storing food than quick digestion. It allows wolves to eat up to 20 pounds in
one feeding period to take advantage of unpredictable prey availability. The food is digested mainly in the small
intestine (aided by their large liver that secretes bile to help break down
fats), and digests all except hair and bones of prey. Wolves
can also fast for up to two weeks while looking for prey: can you imagine doing
something like that?
Conservation: Wolves play an important role in ecosystem
functioning by controlling natural prey populations. As human settlement
increased in the United States of North America., however, wolves were seen as
a threat to livestock and were hunted to extirpation (local extinction) in much
of the United States of North America. Today, there are only about 2,600 grey
wolves left in the lower United States
of North America, 2,000 of which live in Minnesota. Presently, the main
cause of recent population decline is habitat destruction and trophy hunting by
human beans.
There have been many programs to reintroduce wolves into
protected land and this has greatly increased their chance for survival in
North America. In Canada and Alaska, the
wolf population has remained stable.
Not including high Arctic regions; Canada has 50,000 wolves
handled by provincial governments,
and the state of Alaska has between 6,000 and 8,000 animals.
In
Western Europe, populations have been mostly eradicated, with isolated
populations surviving only in Poland, Russia, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Miscellaneous:
Contrary to popular the belief that wolves are dangerous to humans, there is
actually a better chance that a person will be hit by a meteorite than killed
by a wolf! There has been no documented
case of any person being killed by a healthy, wild wolf in the United States of
North America. However, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 10
to 20 people are killed and 4.7 million people are attacked each year by dogs. Cattle are also far more likely to be attacked by dogs than by wolves.
