(fwd) The Wolf. 2/ 3 (fwd)
Norm Kerr (nkerr1@FREENET.EDMONTON.AB.CA)
Fri, 10 Feb 1995 19:04:12 -0700
I posted this b4 but somehow only 3/3 showed.
Newsgroups: can.scout-guide
Subject: The Wolf. 2/ 3
From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs)
Path: news.sas.ab.ca!quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca!alberta!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!hookup!uunet.ca!uunet.ca!portnoy!canrem.com!jim.speirs
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Message-ID: <60.1333.6861.0N1CE247@canrem.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 95 08:38:00 -0500
Organization: CRS Online (Toronto, Ontario)
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Continued from previous message.
blends into the background and is hardly seen.
Arctic wolves have extremely dense underfur which insulates them
against rigorous winters. Another adaptation to environment is
their habit of hunting in packs, or groups, which enables them to
kill large animals--deer, elk, moose, caribou, bison and musk ox.
Social Behaviour and Family Life
The wolves' habit of hunting in packs has resulted in the
development of complex patterns of social behaviour. Wolves are
gregarious: they not only hunt in packs or groups but live most
of their lives with other wolves. Studies in Alaska and parts of
Canada show that a family made up of male, female and pups is the
basic pack unit, but how other adult animals fit in is still not
clearly understood. They may be pups of previous years, or they
may be second year or "adolescent" animals from other packs.
Adolescent wolves have been learning to hunt for at least a year
so can probably hunt big game animals, wolves' usual prey, with
the rest of the pack.
Studies of wolves in captivity show a highly organized social
structure centring on a dominant male and dominant female. A
dominant wolf holds its tail high, stands stiff-legged and
bristles its mane. In its presence, a subservient animal cowers
on the ground with its ears back, or stands with its tail between
its legs, maintaining a very slinky posture. The pack leaders are
seldom challenged by their followers; consequently wolf packs
seldom fight among themselves.
The pack bond is strongest during winter, when the wolves travel
and hunt together. In summer, when the pups are young, the adults
seldom go on long forays. They may hunt together occasionally after
meeting at the den or home site where the pups are being cared for.
Wolves differ from domestic dogs in their reproductive cycles.
Male dogs can breed at any time of the year and females every six
months whereas both male and female wolves in the wild can breed
only once a year. In captivity, male wolves can successfully
breed more than one female.
Whether wolves mate for life has never been proven. Breeding time
varies with the latitude but most commonly occurs in March and
April. After a nine-week gestation period, litters of five or six
pups (sometimes eight or more) are born.
Wolves reach sexual maturity in their second year. It is possible
for young animals to have young of their own on their second
birthday. A pack may include several mature animals but rarely in
one year will more than one female successfully raise her young.
When more than one female in captivity has produced young, the
pups of one litter have sometimes been killed by other adult wolves.
Wolf pups are usually born in a den which, in coniferous forests
and on tundra, is commonly dug in sand deposits, such as eskers,
caused by glacial melt water. In mixed forest areas the den may
be located in hollow trees, old pine stumps, or rock crevices.
The pack usually remains at the whelping den for a month or more
unless it is disturbed.
The pups remain inactive in the den for approximately two weeks.
When they begin to move around outside another member of the pack
may sometimes babysit while their parents go hunting.
Occasionally, the pups are left alone for up to a day at a time.
By mid-autumn they are travelling with the pack and presumably
participating in hunting and other pack activities.
Their frequent play helps young wolves develop hunting skills.
Mature wolves can set up ambushes or drive prey towards other
wolves. These learned (non-instinctive) skills originated in
their clumsy attempts as pups to hide behind obstacles and then
jump out at each other. Even in winter after they are almost
fully grown, pups continue to play in a variety of ways--chasing
around a tree in a forest opening, or having a fast-moving game
on a wilderness lake, with a piece of wood or garbage as the prize.
Howling
The howling of a wolf pack is one of the most awe-inspiring
wilderness sounds, and one not fully understood by man. It may be
a form of communication among individual wolves and possibly
packs. Wolves travelling alone, or in pairs, howl back and forth
as if to keep in touch with each other.
Wolves often howl spontaneously at a home or rendezvous site.
This howling may be a form of 'songfest' for the wolves apparently
enjoy it. In one instance a pack of arctic wolves separated from some
pups by a fast-flowing river howled frequently for several hours. As
they did so, the pups moved anxiously along the river bank. This
Continued in next message.
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* Norman Kerr <nkerr1@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada *
* "Opinions expressed are mine only" *
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