The Wolf

By Barbara Gray

Did you know that dogs are related to wolves?  Even your tiny miniature poodle, the dachshund, and the pug had wolf ancestors.   The Inuit have a story about an elder who had to try to survive alone in extreme cold weather, so she turned into a wolf.   Other tribes in the west honor the wolf as a spiritual animal.   The medicine societies of the Makah and Quilete Indians perform wolf dances to heal the sick.

 There are two main species of wolves: The Grey Wolf (Canis Lupus) known as the Timber Wolf and the Red Wolf (Canis Rufus).  Most other wolves are sub-species of these two.   The adult Grey Wolf is the largest member of the canine family.  The Grey Wolves weigh from 75 to as much as 175 pounds.  The males weigh much more than the females.  

Wolves stand between 27 inches to 32 inches - this measurement is to their shoulders.   They are 4 1/2 feet to 6 1/2 feet long measuring from nose to tip of tail.  Their lifespan is seven to eight years with some living to be 10 or more.  The Grey Wolf’s color ranges from a grizzled gray or black with some wolves being all white.  This is the species seen here in the northeast.

The wolf’s diet consists of ungulates (large hoofed mammals) like deer, moose, and caribou.  They will also eat rabbits, beaver, and other small animals.  They are scavengers and often eat animals that have died of starvation or diseases.  In earlier days there was up to 2 million of them in the world.  Today in Alaska and the lower states that number is down to less than 17,000. Wolves were common throughout all of North American, but most were killed in many areas of the United States by the mid 1930s.  Efforts to reintroduce wolf populations have been positive.  

Mexican wolves are now found in Arizona and New Mexico thanks to reintroduction programs.  Wolves are a very important link in the wild.  The role and duty of each species put on Earth by the Creator is not fully understood by humans.  All play an important role.  What you do to one species, you do to another, and eventually it will impact the natural balance in a catastrophic way.   Those who make a living from raising animals that wolves go after must act responsibly and figure out how to live with wolves, instead of seeing them as the enemy.  

Wolves are opportunistic and generally do not kill healthy animals.  It is usually the weak, sick, crippled, and young and old that are most vulnerable to a wolf attack.  It is this trait that makes the role of the wolf in nature important and a necessity in order to cull unfit prey.  Wolves play an important part in the process of natural selection.  Humans need to realize that each being within the Natural World has a responsibility to fulfill.  People should not interfere with the duties and responsibilities of other beings, including the wolf.

Wolves live in packs of four to seven animals.  There is the mother and father called the alphas and their pups and maybe several other young animals.  Wolves develop close relationships and deep affection for their family.  Wolves have a very complex system of communication that range from barks and whines to growls and howls.  Wolves have been known to often sacrifice themselves to save a family member.  

The Red Wolf is the rarest and most endangered of the wolf species.  At one time they were in most of eastern North America and their territory extended far north into Canada.  However, in the last century persecution from man, habitat destruction, and their hybridizing with coyotes has brought the Red Wolf to the brink of extinction.  They are medium sized.  They are smaller and more slender than the Grey Wolf.  The males weigh from 60 to 80 pounds with the females being two-thirds that size.  Their color can be black, brown, gray, cinnamon, or yellow.  

Both the Grey Wolf and the Red Wolf howl.  They howl for many reasons.  Pack members recognize their own family members howling.  They may howl to declare a territory as theirs.  If a member is lost they will howl to locate their lost family member, and the lost wolf will howl to let his family know his location.  The lost wolf follows the howls of his family to find his way home.  They will sometimes howl to protect a fresh kill.  People listening to howling wolves had estimated there to be at least 20 wolves when there was only four.  It is necessary for wolves to howl and sound like a large group to ward off other wolf packs.  Their system is quite interesting.

While most people will say, “The wolves are howling at the moon,” they are actually howling for very specific reasons.  It is their way of communicating.  They would not just howl because the moon is shining brightly.  They may howl unnecessarily if they are a pup who recently found out he can howl, and has not learned the right times to howl.  Howling is done with great discretion and for communication purposes only because howling also lets their enemies know where they can be located.  Detection is something they try to avoid.

The howl of a wolf can last up to 11 seconds or a bit more, and the howl can be heard up to 10 miles away.  Other interesting facts are that the wolf will wag its tail just like a dog does when it is happy, and a wolf’s nose contains two hundred million smelling cells allowing it to smell 100 times better than a human being.  Importantly, although wolves communicate by howling, they also communicate in other ways.  Their communication system is highly developed.  It also consists of body posture, facial expressions and different kinds of vocalizations other than howling.    Such communications are essential to maintain the structure and survival of the pack wolfpainting