Facts About The Mejestic Wolf, Forest Ostrander [miss read books TXT] 📗

food to the mother so she doesn't have to leave the den. When the pups are a little bigger, pack members "take turns" bringing them food, playing with them and even "baby sitting".
Once the pups are about eight weeks old, they leave the den and start using "rendezvous sites." These are meeting places where the wolves gather to sleep, play and just "hang out." Until the pups are old enough to go with the adults, (when pups are six months old, they look almost like adult wolves. Around this time, they start hunting with the rest of the pack) they stay at the rendezvous site. Often, one of the adult wolves stays with the pups to watch over them.
Wolf pups love to play. They chase each other and roll around the way dog puppies do. Many of their games appear to be a sort of practice for the things they will do as adult wolves. 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.

Eye Color
Most wolf pups are born with blue eyes, which gradually change to a yellow-gold color by eight to sixteen weeks, though sometimes their eyes can change color much later. Occasionally, a mature wolf will be found with blue eyes.

General Wolf Facts
Size:
Average Length (from nose to tail): males- 5 to 6.5 ft.; females- 4.5 to 5 ft.
Average Height (at shoulder): 26 to 32 inches
Average Weight: males- 70 to 110 lbs.; females- 60 to 80 lbs.
Life Span:
- 13 years in the wild
- 14 to 19 in captivity

Pelage:
- gray but can also be white, brownish, or black. Usually corresponds to the wolves' environment.
Adaptations:
Ears: Wolves can hear sounds up to 6 miles away. While sleeping, its ears stand straight up. This helps catch prey and warn wolves of danger.
Eyes: Poor frontal vision beyond 100 to 150 feet. However, they have very accurate peripheral vision.
Nose: Sense of smell is 100x better than a hooman's. It's nose is essentail in finding prey. The wolf can smell prey more than a mile away. It can sense the presence of an animal 3 days after its gone.
Legs: More than any other carnivore, a wolf is adapted to run. The anatomy of their front lags set them apart from other canines. Their knees turn in, their paws turn out. They can top speeds of 35-45 mph.
Teeth: 42 teeth. Four canine teeth are used for hanging onto or biting through the flesh of prey. The molars are at the back of the mouth. These specialized shearing teeth, known as carnassials is one of the reasons that wolves have managed to survive.
Coat: Wolves thick coat helps them survive the extreme cold of winters, especially in the Arctic regions.
Communication: Wolves howl to warn, to bond, to play, and to gather a hunting group. They also growl, snarl, whine, yip, whimper, and bark to communicate. They use facial expressions to show emotion and scent marking to show territorial boundaries; warn nearby packs.
Wolves are very social animals, and they communicate well with each other within the pack. Gestures of dominance and submission keep the pack in order.

Reproduction:
- Alpha Pair sometimes mate for life
- Breeding Season: January to March
- Gestation Period: about 65 days
- Litter Size: 1-9; usually 6 pups
- At Birth: Pups have blue eyes and weigh 1 pound
-Sexual Maturaity: males- 3 years old; females- 2 years old

Pack Size:
- 2 to 15 wolves *sometimes larger
Wolf Hierarchy
Highest Ranking: Alpha Pair---->Beta pair---->Surbordinates---->Omega---->Pups: Lowest Ranking
Hunting:
- wolves stalk and chase large hoofed animals in groups, working together to bring down the prey
- usually hunt young, sick, or weak animals
- deer, elk, moose, bison, caribou
- When hunting alone, a wolf will eat small animals such as rodents, rabbits, beaver, oppossums, and even snakes or lizards
- Occasionally, wolves will kill ranchers' livestock due to the depredation of their own natural prey by hoomans
- Wolves almost always prefer wild prey

Competition:
The wolf has no natural predators. However, its competition includes other predators in their range such as wolverines, bears, and cougars. Also wolves tend to have problems with coyotes who try to steal carcasses after a hunt.
Threats To Survival:
- loss of habitat due to destruction, development, and encroachment by hoomans
- persecution by humans
Most Common Subspecies and Habitat:
North American Subspecies;

Mexican Wolf:
Canis Lupus baileyi
Mexico and Southwest United States
Buffalo Wolf:
Canis Lupus bubilus
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan
Mackenzie Valley Wolf:
Canis Lupus occidentalis
Western Canada and Alaska

Arctic Wolf:
Canis Lupus arctos
Far North Region and Ellesmere Island

Timber Wolf:
Canis Lupus lycaon
Eastern United States and South Eastern Canada
European Subspecies;

Scandinavian Wolf:
Canis Lupus lineeaus
Norway, Sweden and Finland.
European Wolf:
Canis Lupus lupus
Mid-Europe
/The European part under construction by WolfMoon

Conservation:
- The wolf has been hunted, trapped, and poisoned by humans for centuries. The government gave bounties for killed wolves in the past. Now the government is protecting the wolf through the Endangered Species Act (ESA). With the help of wildlife societies, the wolf is slowly being restored to its natural range.
- Recovery of Timber Wolves in New York
- Recovery of the Mexican Wolve
- Reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho

Facts:
- 1998 National Wildlife Federation Poll shows 76% of Americans support wolf restoration
- Incidence of rabies in wolves is extremely low
- Farmers and ranchers are often compensated for cattle killed by reintroduced wolves

The Most Hated:
- For generations the wolf was the symbol for evil; compared to the devil
- Many myths and fairy tales surround the wolf; almost always the villian
- Today, luckily, farmers have the most problems with wolves

The Most Loved:
- In recent years, the wolf has become the symbol of great hope, courage, and wilderness
- It represents all endangered species and their survival
- The wolf's beauty and mystery has intrigued many to watch, study, and protect the species
- The wolf is a survivor and it still lives on...
For more info please visit Defenders of Wildlife and International Wolf Center
European links comes later!

Wolves have a rich vocabualry of visual signals that communicate social rank, mood, and intentions. Subtle changes in tail and ear positions, of body and head angle and height, making and breaking eye contact, and various facial expression show this information. Even two emotions of varying intensity, such as fear and submission, or submission and defensive threat, can be signaled at the same time. Although these
displays are instinctive, a wolf learns who is who in the pack and what to expect in certain social situations. He is aware of the various roles he and other wolves play in different situations. This awareness is termed "metacommunication"--"He knows that you know that he knows." Because of this, the frequency and complexity of communications signaling can be reduced; a mere glance or slight flick of the ears suffices.
Aggression

Since each wolf knows its place in the rank order, conflicts are reduced. Once a stable dominance hierarchy is established, peace reigns in the pack. Any disagreements are settled by ritualized fighting or "jaw wrestling," and sometimes just by a threat display without any physical contact at all. The alpha wolves may "police" others, subordinating an upstart with a direct stare and breaking up squabbles between two lower-ranking wolves.
What seems to be very aggressive is the pinning of whining subordinates to the ground by the growling leader. Subordinates often solicit this; such behavior is not aggressive but is a ritual display of rank between pack members, serving to reaffirm the unity of the pack and the alliance to the leader.
As soon as a wolf gives a surrender signal and shows submission toward the other contestant, the latter will immediately stop fighting. Wolves do show chivarly!
Play

Wolves of all ages, from four weeks of age and on, engage in play. They are by nature curious creatures, and any novel item that catches their fancy could become a play object: a stick, piece of antler, or the tail of another wolf. Wolf cubs especially engage in a form of "hallucinatory" self play, pawing, snapping at, and even chasing their own tails or spooking and pouncing on or running away from nothing, just like a kitten. A stick or strip of deer hide can be a toy for solitary play to be stalked, attacked, shaken, and "killed" or a catalyst for social play even for adult wolves. Suitable objects can be used for tugs of war, chase, and catch or even as a "dare", where one wolf dares another to steal its toy.
Then there is the social play of wolves, enjoyed by all pack members. Social play takes many forms. Hugging and wrestling are forms of contact-play which are usually started by a "let's play" bow and are especially evident during courtship. Contact play is often interspersed with brief bouts of affectionate grooming and may lead to playful fighting, chasing, stalking, and ambush, involving two, three, and more wolves.

Parental Behavior

Much of the social life of the pack revolves around the care and rearing of young. When parents go off hunting, another adult will baby-sit. Adults play for hours with the cubs and are extrememly tolerant and affectionate, but not overpermissive. Cubs soon learn their places within the pack. Little is known about how the older wolves teach cubs to hunt, but much is probably picked up by observation and imitation alone.
Socialization and Group Rituals

As cubs play and interact with each other and with adults, they become socialized or emotionally bonded at an early age. This bonding period wanes around four months and cubs begin to shy away from strangers.
Older cubs persist in mobbing the leader, licking the face, whining and tail-wagging in the same way they once did