| Interesting Facts About Wolves |
| Wolf Creek Habitat Wolf |
| Wolf Creek Habitat Wolf |
| The scientific name for a gray wolf is Canis lupus, which means dog wolf. Although wolves and dogs are related, they look nothing alike to the trained eye. Dogs do not have guard hairs. Their movements are not as fluid or calculated as those of wolves. Also, wolves tails do not curl up. The domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris, is a subspecies of the wolf species. Wolves are so closely related to the domestic dogs that the two can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. When they want to play wolves will often bow, stretching out in front while swishing their tails,and raising the back ends. This classic behavior is known as the "play bow." Most confrontations between wolves involve a lot of bluffing and little actual fighting. A wolf pack may contain up to three dozen wolves, but more often contains less than ten. The main species of wolf is the gray wolf, which still inhabits areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Most full-grown gray wolves weigh between 70 to 100 pounds, females average 55 to 90 pounds. A full-grown male gray usually measures 5 to 6 1/2 from nose to the tip of its tail. The female is typically about 15 to 20 lbs smaller. Wolves have excellent sight & hearing. They have 3 eyelids. Along the regular top and bottom lids found in humans, a wolf has a clear layer that protects the eye from dust. But their most important hunting sense is their sense of smell. They can detect a prey's scent from up to 1 1/2 miles away. The most popular hunting time for northern wolves is at dusk or dawn,they typically travel up to 15 miles in search for food. It is not unusual for Gray wolves to maintain territories of more than 500 square miles, which is a lot of land to defend. Arctic wolves maintain twice that amount, traveling over 1,000 square miles in search of food. The molars set in the back portion of a wolf's jaw serve to crush and pulverize the bones of it's prey. The fang-like canine teeth of a wolf are typically at least 1 inch long. Some sources indicate they can even grow to be 2 1/2 or 3 inches in size. The wolf's teeth are not devised for chewing. Instead, wolves shear away chunks of meat and swallow them whole. The front paws of a wolf are larger that the back paws. They have 5 toes on each of their front feet and 4 toes on each of their back. They are able to run fast in part because their hind feet are in line with their front, which allows them to cut a thin, efficient path through the snow and brush. Up to a third of a wolf's life-- eight hours a day-- is spent on the move, running or trotting. Running wolves can sustain speeds of 5 or 6 miles per hour for several hours straight when looking for food or chasing prey. Most wolves do not see humans as possible prey. This is why wolf attacks on people are very rare. Healthy wolves do not attack humans. In the few cases ever recorded of human attacks, wolves were being surprised and threatened, or the attacking wolf was rabid. Wolves shed both their underfur and their guard hairs in the spring. Even as the old coat is being gradually cast off, a new coat is beginning to grow. The guard hairs help keep the underfur dry. A wolf that lives is a warmer climate will have a thinner underfur and shorter guard hairs than it's northern counterpart. Each wolf pack has it's own territory, and maintaining this territory for the exclusive use of its own members is extremely important to the pack. Pack size is at its smallest in early spring, when the ravages of winter have depleted its numbers. Wolves have been reduced to such low numbers, that recovery efforts to save and protect them have been implemented. The members of a wolf pack will react to a trespassing wolf that strays into their territory by growling, threatening it with stares, trying to chase it away or even killing it if necessary. The largest known gray wolf to ever live in the United States weighed 175 pounds. It was shot by a hunter in Alaska in 1939. Despite its keen sense of smell, a wolf may have trouble detecting nearby prey if the wind is carrying the prey's scent in the opposite direction. In habitats where fish are readily available, wolves may depend in this as a food source to meet their nutritional requirements. The fifth toe on a wolf's front foot is called a dewclaw. It is smaller in size and is positioned on the leg rather than on the toe pad. Through the centuries, we have projected onto the wolf the qualities we most despise and fear in ourselves. |
| Native American Ways & The Wolf Many Cherokee tribes believed that any weapon that killed a wolf had to be cleansed by a shaman before it would work properly again. According to Indian legend of the Pacific Northwest coast, a group of Orca whales once came up on land and became wolves. The medicine men of many Native American tribes would pray and call out to the wolf, believing that the animal had the power to help cure all ill person by giving them the strength to fight off evil spirits. The Tlingit people carve a figure of a tired wolf on all their totem poles in honor of the legendary wolf who once lived among them and helped them find deer to eat. Warriors of the Nez Perce tribes pierced their noses and wore the tooth of a wolf pushed through the piercing. The Pawnee, native people of Nebraska and Kansas, used the same hand sign for wolf as they did for Pawnee. In certain Native American cultures, a warrior would sometimes tie the tail of a wolf around his ankle to symbolize a successful deed in battle. Look into a wolf's eyes and what do you see-- A guardian spirit or fierce enemy? |
| Wolf Creek Habitat Wolf |
