The wolf is a normal gray wolf.

wolf common, gray wolf- the animal is incredibly hardy. In order to survive in places with a harsh climate, the gray wolf has acquired some qualities that increase the level of vitality. For example, wolves inhabiting the territories of the Arctic latitudes have adapted to endure long polar nights and harsh weather conditions.

After all, even in February, when the sun rises again over these harsh lands, temperatures of -40 and a piercing icy wind are a frequent occurrence here. Other types of wolves have adapted perfectly to life in the desert or on the wet marshy shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

The domestic dog is considered a relative of the wild wolf, more precisely, wolves are the distant ancestors of dogs. Indeed, despite the fact that wolves are larger, these animals can find a lot in common. However, it is difficult to imagine that a dog of any breed, be it a pug or a Doberman, is a descendant of this predatory animal.

Characteristics of a wolf.

Wolf ordinary has a well-developed intellect. This could not but be reflected in the appearance of the animal: first of all, the intellect of the wolf is reflected in its penetrating gaze.

The weight and size of the animal varies over a fairly wide range and depends on the species. The height of the animal at the withers ranges from 0.6 to 0.95 m, and the weight is from 20 to 62 kg.

Gray wolf- the largest representative of the canine family. Male wolves weighing over 77 kg have been recorded in Alaska and Canada. But wolves of such gigantic sizes are extremely rare.

The world's largest wolf was killed in Alaska, the animal weighed 80 kg. And the representatives of the subspecies of the Arabian wolf are considered the smallest, the adult female of this subspecies weighs no more than 10 kg.

The weight of the female is always less than the weight of their male compatriots by approximately 22%. The length of the body of a wolf, measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, ranges from 1.3 to 2 m, while the tail occupies about a quarter of this length.

As mentioned above, the common wolf is incredibly hardy. The narrow chest, powerful back and paws of this animal endow it with the ability to overcome long distances. The wolf is able to overcome many kilometers, moving at a speed of 10 km / h. It is also known that during the chase, the wolf is able to reach speeds of up to 65 km / h. At this speed, he can run a distance of no more than 5 km.

The social structure of wolves.

Wolves usually live in a pack. The flock begins its formation when the male connects with the female. The couple is looking for a suitable place to settle down and raise offspring. The pups stay with their parents until they are old enough to leave the pack.

This usually happens at the age of 3 years, while the presence of favorable conditions that allow the young wolf to start a family plays an important role. The structure of the pack can be represented as follows: the unchanging core is a pair of wolf and she-wolf, the rest of the members of the pack are their offspring, they can often change, leaving the pack to start an independent life.

There is a clear hierarchy in the pack, headed by an alpha male and an alpha female. Their influence, to a certain extent, extends to all processes occurring in the pack. In larger flocks, in addition to the main hierarchical branch, two more independent ones are added.

The first hierarchical branch exists among males and is headed by an alpha male, the second - among females and is headed, respectively, by an alpha female. In this case, the alpha male occupies a dominant position in the entire pack. However, there are situations when the female takes the dominant position inseparably.

This usually happens during the breeding season. The female single-handedly chooses a place for the lair and also receives help from the rest of the pack in feeding offspring. This primarily means that the pack hunts to feed the she-wolf or her cubs.

The female and male branches of the hierarchy exist independently of each other and require constant confirmation through aggression and demonstrations of dominance and submission. Breeding control is one of the primary privileges of the pack's alphas.

The alpha pair usually has the exclusive right to breed, while they actively and quite aggressively prevent the reproduction of other adult members of the pack. To form their own family, they need to leave the pack.

Another privilege of the alpha couple is access to food. If the flock has caught a large prey, then the alpha pair and their offspring are the first to approach it. Therefore, in times of famine, it is more profitable for the rest of the flock to separate and try to feed themselves. However, when there is no shortage of food, the meal of the wolves is quite amicable.

In a large pack of wolves, there is always a second place in the hierarchy. Wolves that occupy this stage are called beta males or beta females. They often take on the role of educators of offspring, during the absence of parents of wolf cubs.

As a rule, sooner or later the beta male or female will challenge the leader to take his place, although some of them are quite satisfied with the second place. In this case, beta males or females even allow lower-ranking wolves to take the place of leader in the pack under certain conditions, for example, in the event of the death of the alpha male.

The more ambitious betas, however, are unwilling to wait long and challenge rather soon or split off from the pack to form their own. It happens that the alpha male, being in advanced years, voluntarily gives way to the beta.

Stronger alpha males will fight to the last to maintain the dominant role, such fights often end in serious damage to both. The loser is usually expelled from the pack or killed if aggressive wolves join the opponent. Such dominance battles are most common during mating season.

A hierarchy within the wolf pack is established and maintained through a series of "ritual fights" and demonstrations. Wolves prefer a psychological duel to a physical skirmish, which means that personality traits are more important than size or physical strength in the struggle for high rank.

The order in which the hierarchy is established may differ from pack to pack, for example, if there are many non-aggressive males in a large pack, then the hierarchy in the pack will constantly change, the same situation will be observed in a pack of young wolves.

Feeding and hunting of wolves.

Wolves can hunt as a pack or on their own. However, wolves hunting in a pack have a greater advantage, since acting together they are able to kill an animal that surpasses them both in strength and size.

The wolf is a strict predator, so not all food is suitable to support his body. He rarely finishes his prey. Hunting for a wolf is not a sporting interest, but a necessary condition for survival.

Wolves can not only hunt, they can also eat carrion. Any animal from a large mammal to a small rodent can become their prey. Here are some of them: deer, moose, caribou, elk, bison, musk ox. From medium-sized animals, these are beaver, hare and other rodents.

The wolf has a large stomach volume, which allows him to eat up to 9-11 kg of food at a time. This same feature gives the wolf the ability to go without food for up to 2 weeks or even longer, under adverse conditions.

Their digestive system is very well thought out, because in addition to large pieces of meat that the wolf's stomach can digest, which make up 5% of the total food volume, large bone fragments and wool enter the wolf's stomach.

Due to the fact that the bones that have fallen into the digestive system of the wolf somehow turn into tufts of undigested wool, the animal manages to avoid injury to the intestines.

Wolf cubs feed on food regurgitated by an adult wolf from the stomach or on pieces of meat that adult wolves bring to the den after a successful hunt.

Wolves play an important role in the ecosystem. During the hunt, they kill only weakened animals, thus improving the herd's gene pool and ridding it of burdensome animals.

For example, a sick animal lives among a herd of deer, which not only poses a threat of infection to other members of the herd, but also eats food that could feed the growing young. By destroying such an animal, the wolf performs its useful functions.

Wolves live and hunt mainly in their own territory. Members of the pack control and protect their possessions from invading outsiders. The size of the pack's possessions depends on the abundance of food.

During the period when the conditions are not favorable, the area of ​​​​the territory can decrease to 65-78 sq km, under better conditions, the territory occupied by the flock can cover up to 208-234 sq km.

Before the start of the hunt, wolves gather together to greet each other and howl to scare away strangers from their territory. Then the wolves comb all their possessions until they find a victim.

The wolf approaches the victim against the direction of the wind, so that the animal does not run away, smelling the scent of a predator. The flock slowly approaches the prey, often lining up in a row one after another. As soon as their prey realizes that a predator is chasing it and tries to escape, the wolves give chase.

Having overtaken the prey, the wolves try to bite it on the back or sides. Most often, large horned animals are attacked in this way in order to prevent him from defending himself with horns and avoid possible damage. As soon as the victim falls, they are killed by a bite in the throat or muzzle. Then the carcass is dragged aside and they start eating.

The hunt for wolves can be over in a few minutes, or it can take hours. The more successfully the attack is built, the greater the chances of a successful completion of the hunt. If the attack fails, then the wolves continue to hunt until they catch the prey. After all, it is a matter of survival.

Reproduction.

The mating season for wolves is from January to March. According to pack laws, only the alpha male and alpha female mate, which helps control the population.

During the mating season, the alpha couple lives in seclusion to prevent interference from the rest of the pack. Mating attempts between other members of the pack are met with aggression from the alpha pair, the alpha male usually expelling the offending male from the pack.

Two broods in a flock are rare. To prevent this, the alpha female shows aggression towards other females and tries to physically protect the alpha male from them during the mating season.

Unlike dogs, in which estrus occurs twice during the year, estrus in a she-wolf occurs once. Wolves do not lose their reproductive abilities until 10 years of age.

The gestation period of the female lasts 60-63 days. Wolf cubs are born absolutely helpless: blind and deaf. In the litter of the female, on average, from 4 to 6 puppies are born, however, it may happen that the female will give birth to 1 cub or 14. The puppies spend the first 8 weeks of their lives in the den.

The lair is most often located on a hill near the reservoir. This is where the cubs will take their first steps. At first, they explore the area in the immediate vicinity of the lair, and then gradually move away to a considerable distance, up to one and a half kilometers from their home.

At the age of 4 weeks, cubs develop milk teeth and begin to eat partially digested food, which is regurgitated by adults. During the first weeks of life, only their mother is present with the cubs, but after 6 weeks from the moment of birth, the cubs are partially weaned from their mother and the whole pack is involved in the upbringing process. Being under the supervision of the entire pack, the cubs are more likely to survive.

When the cubs are 2 months old, they are transferred to another safe place where they will stay when the pack goes hunting. Of course, they are not alone there: one or two adult wolves remain to look after them.

A few weeks later, the cubs may be allowed to join the hunt, but so far only as observers. Wolf cubs will act as active participants when they are strong enough, this will happen at the age of 8 months.

Despite their low rank in the pack, wolf cubs are the first to be allowed to prey. Fights for the right to eat first between the cubs form a hierarchy among them. So already at such a young age, wolf cubs learn to play dominant and submissive roles, which are very important for their future life in the pack.

Having reached puberty at the age of 2-3 years, the wolf can leave the pack at will, find a mate and organize its own pack on its territory.

The conservation status of the wolf.

Unfortunately, the wolf was mistakenly considered a pest for a long time, which led to the almost complete destruction of this predator. Today, people have become more educated in this matter, but nevertheless, there is still such an opinion among many farmers. Through the efforts of specialists and enthusiasts, many projects have been launched, the main task of which is to support the process of reintroducing the wolf.

Where only the gray wolf lives! It can be found in Europe and Asia, in North America and on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. He can live both in the taiga and coniferous forests (which everyone knows), and in the icy tundra and deserts. In Hindustan, the wolf lives up to about 16' north latitude. The lifestyle of many subspecies is different, in addition, they differ in size and color.

APPEARANCE, PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS, FEATURES

The wolf is the largest animal in its family: its body is 160 cm long (including the tail); at the withers, the height reaches 90 cm; weighs about 60 kg.

The body of the gray wolf is distinguished by its strength, muscularity, and broad chest. Legs - high, with tightly compressed fingers. The head is broad and elegant at the same time. Ears are small. Dark stripes on the head are picturesquely combined with almost pure white cheeks and light spots above the eyes. The tail is not very long, hanging almost straight. Long thick fur reaches 8 cm. The undercoat is hard long black guard hairs at the ends, repelling water, ensuring its impermeability. The common wolf has a completely different coloration, which varies depending on the range. There are even white individuals found in the Arctic. Other color options are various variations of white with brown, gray, cinnamon, black, sometimes completely black. North American wolves can boast of generally three different color schemes of color. The first is a mixture of gray, black and cinnamon, the top is brown. The second is a mixture of black and dark brown. The third is gray with brown.

LIFESTYLE OF THE GRAY WOLF

Habitat

The wolf lives in a variety of landscapes, but prefers steppes, semi-deserts, tundra, forest-steppe, avoiding dense forests. In the mountains, it is distributed from the foothills to the area of ​​alpine meadows, adhering to open, slightly rugged areas. Can settle near human habitation. In the taiga zone, it spread after humans, as the taiga was cleared.

The wolf is quite a territorial creature. Breeding pairs, and often flocks, live settled in certain areas, the boundaries of which are indicated by odorous marks. The diameter of the area occupied by the flock in winter is usually 30-60 kilometers. In spring and summer, when the flock breaks up, the territory occupied by it is divided into several fragments. The best of them is captured and held by the main pair, the rest of the wolves pass to a semi-wandering way of life. In the open steppes and tundra, wolves often roam after moving herds of livestock or domestic deer.

Sociality, habits, other features of life

Wolves live in packs - family groups of 3 to 40 animals. At the head of the pack are the leader, the strongest and smartest of the males of the pack, and his girlfriend. Around them single and young wolves unite. The leader enjoys unquestioned authority in the pack. Those wolves who do not like the power of the leader are expelled from the pack, or leave on their own in the hope of creating their own pack. Each flock has its own territory, which animals carefully protect from intruders.

The famous wolf howl, heard far around, is one way to make it clear that this territory is occupied.

Nutrition, ways of getting food

The main prey of the wolf is large ungulates. It can be moose, reindeer or other deer, roe deer, wild boars. Wolves also prey on smaller mammals: hares, ground squirrels, other rodents, as well as birds. In times of famine, this formidable predator will not disdain such "undignified" food as insects or carrion. In winter, wolves hunt moose, deer or roe deer. Wolves have different methods of hunting: they take the victim by starvation, attack from an ambush, replace each other in a grueling pursuit, try to separate from the herd and attack a weak or sick animal. However, only one out of ten wolf hunts ends successfully. The leader and his female are the first to saturate, choosing the best pieces of carcass.

Reproduction, growth, lifespan

During the mating season, skirmishes and serious fights occur in the pack, sometimes with a fatal outcome. After the formation of a pair, the "young" are removed from the flock. Pregnancy lasts about two months, then the she-wolf gives birth to three to ten blind cubs. The whole flock helps to feed the young offspring, bringing to the den, where the she-wolf with babies is located, selected pieces of meat.

Lairs are arranged for breeding offspring; usually they are served by natural shelters - crevices in the rocks, thickets of bushes and the like. Sometimes wolves occupy the burrows of badgers, marmots, arctic foxes and other animals, less often they dig them on their own. Most of all, the female is attached to the den during the rearing of offspring, the male does not use it. Young growth is hatched in sheltered places: in the forest belt - mainly in dense shrubs, on manes among marshy swamps; in the steppes - along ravines overgrown with shrubs, gullies and dry reed beds near lakes; in the tundra - on the hills. Characteristically, wolves never hunt near their homes, but at a distance of 7-10 km and further. After the wolf cubs grow up, the animals stop using their permanent den, and settle down to rest in various, but reliable places. Small wolf cubs of a brownish color, very similar to ordinary puppies of a domestic dog.

INTERESTING FACTS!

Do you know that:

A wolf pack can consist of two or three wolves, or it can contain dozens of individuals.

A hungry wolf is able to absorb about 10 kg of meat in one sitting.

All newborns have blue eyes, and at the age of 8 months, the eyes of these wonderful predators turn yellow.

At the moment, there are countless images of wolves in the world. However, the oldest ones were found in Europe. Their age is 20,000 years.

Under wonderful weather conditions, the wolf is able to hear at a distance of up to 9 kilometers in the forest and up to 16 kilometers in the plains.

GRAY WOLF AND MAN

Harm or benefit?

For humans, the wolf has always been enemy number one: the beast attacked livestock, posed a danger to people, so the wolf was exterminated everywhere. Now wolves are not at all as numerous as they used to be in the past. Meanwhile, the wolf, being a large predator, plays an important role in the ecological balance: it regulates the number of large ungulates, preys mainly on sick and weak animals in the herd, thereby contributing to the survival of the strongest. You should not forget about this and scold in vain the "evil" and "predatory" wolf - in nature there are no "unnecessary" and "useless" animals.

DISTRIBUTION AREAS, POPULATION, PROTECTION

In historical time, among terrestrial mammals, the range of the wolf was second in area after the range of man, covering most of the Northern Hemisphere; now greatly reduced. In Europe, the wolf has been preserved in Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, the Balkans, and the Baltic states. In Asia, it inhabits Korea, partly China and the Indian subcontinent, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the north of the Arabian Peninsula; extinct in Japan (subspecies Canis lupus hodophilax). In North America, it is found from Alaska to Mexico. In Russia, it is absent only on some islands: (Sakhalin, Kuriles).

RELATED SPECIES OF THE GRAY WOLF (Canis lupus)

The gray wolf has a relative living in the east of North America - the Red wolf (Canis lupus rufus). It is somewhat smaller and really red in color. Unfortunately, now this species is on the verge of complete extinction due to immoderate human persecution and is listed in the Red Book.

The wolf is a predatory mammal that belongs to the carnivorous order, the canine family (canine, wolf).

The Russian word "wolf" is consonant with some Slavic names of the beast: the Bulgarians call the predator vylk, the Serbs - vuk, the Ukrainians - vovk. The origin of the name goes back to the Old Slavonic word "vylk", meaning to drag, drag away.

Predators have a long and thick tail, which in some species grows up to 56 cm in length and is always lowered. The wolf's head is massive, with high-set sharp ears, and the muzzle is elongated and wide. The skull of the red and maned wolves is shaped like a fox.

The wolf's mouth is armed with 42 teeth: predatory teeth are designed to tear prey into pieces and grind bones, and with the help of fangs, the beast holds and drags its prey tightly.

Only in red wolves, the dental formula contains a smaller number of molars.

Wolf cubs are born with blue eyes, but by the third month the iris becomes orange or golden yellow, although there are wolves that remain blue-eyed all their lives.

The fur of the wolf is thick and two-layered: the undercoat is formed by waterproof fluff, and the top layer is made up of guard hairs that repel dirt and moisture. The low thermal conductivity of wool allows animals to survive in the most severe climatic conditions.

The color of wolves is distinguished by a rich spectrum of shades, including various variations of gray, white, black and brown, although it is not uncommon for the fur to be red, pure white or almost black. It is believed that the color of the coat allows predators to harmoniously merge with the surrounding landscape, and the mixing of different shades emphasizes the individuality of animals.

Wolves are digitigrade animals: reliance on fingers allows them to balance their weight while moving. Strong limbs, a narrow sternum and a sloping back allow predators to travel considerable distances in search of food. The usual gait of a wolf is a light trot at a speed of about 10 km / h. The speed of a wolf chasing prey can reach 65 km/h.

The wolf has excellent hearing, eyesight is much weaker, but the sense of smell is excellently developed: the predator smells prey for 3 km, and the ability to distinguish several million different shades of smell is of great importance during the rutting season, during hunting and during the communicative communication of animals. Urine and faecal marks are used to mark territory boundaries.

The vocal range of wolves is rich and varied: predators howl, grunt, yap, squeal, growl, whimper and convey complex messages to other members of the pack with their voice. At dawn, you can hear the "choral singing" of wolves. It is believed that wolves howl at the moon, but in fact, howling animals inform members of the pack about their location and drive away strangers. Solitary animals that live outside the pack rarely howl, so as not to bring trouble on themselves.

The facial expressions of wolves are also very highly developed: thanks to the position of the mouth, lips, ears and tail, as well as the display of teeth, predators express their emotional state. As with a domestic dog, a raised tail and wolf ears indicate alertness or aggression.

The lifespan of wolves

In nature, wolves live from 8 to 16 years; in captivity, life expectancy can reach 20 years.

Historically, the range of wolves was the second largest after the range of humans in the Northern Hemisphere, but today it has decreased significantly. Wolves live in Europe (the Baltic States, Spain, Portugal, Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, Poland, the Balkans and the Scandinavian countries), Asia (in countries such as China, Korea, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran , Iraq, north of the Arabian Peninsula), Africa (Ethiopia), North America (Canada, Mexico, USA, including Alaska), South America (Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay). In Russia, wolves are distributed throughout the territory, except for Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

The following types of wolves live in Russia:

• red wolf (2 subspecies out of 10);
• Gray wolf;
• tundra wolf;
• steppe wolf;
• Eurasian wolf, also known as Tibetan or Carpathian;
• polar Wolf.

Predators have mastered and adapted to life in a wide variety of natural areas: wolves live in the tundra, forests, deserts and semi-deserts, on plains, in mountain forests, sometimes they settle near settlements.

Wolves are territorial and social animals, forming packs of 3 to 40 individuals, which occupy a personal area of ​​65-300 square kilometers, marked with odorous marks. At the head of the pack is a monogamous pair of leaders: an alpha male and an alpha female, the rest of the pack members are their offspring, other relatives and lone wolves that have nailed down, subject to a strict hierarchy. For the rutting period, the flock breaks up, the territory is divided into small fragments, but the dominant pair always gets the best site. While moving through their territory, the leaders leave odorous marks every 3 minutes. At the border of the territory, the density of marks can be even more frequent.

Being nocturnal animals, during the day wolves rest in various natural shelters, thickets and shallow caves, but often use the burrows of marmots, arctic foxes or badgers, and dig holes themselves very rarely.

What does a wolf eat?

Wolves are one of the most agile, fast and enduring predators, tracking down and tirelessly pursuing their prey. The diet of the wolf depends on the availability of food and in most varieties consists mainly of animal food. Wolves are equally successful in hunting in packs and alone, but they can drive and attack large prey, for example, reindeer, bison or yak, only by cohesive hunting. In 60% of cases, wolves attack young, old, sick or injured animals, and they perfectly feel whether the animal is strong and healthy or sickly and weakened.

In the wild, the wolf feeds on large animals (moose, deer, roe deer, saigas, antelopes, bison, wild boars), smaller mammals (hares, ground squirrels, beavers, armadillos, mice, lemmings), as well as fish, nesting birds, and their eggs. Wolves often prey on large and small domestic animals and birds (geese, ducks, sheep, cows, horses), as well as foxes, wild dogs and corsacs.

In the absence of a primary food source, wolves do not disdain small amphibians (such as frogs), lizards, insects (beetles, locusts), and carrion (such as dead seals washed ashore). In the warm season, berries, mushrooms and ripe fruits appear in the diet of predators.

In the steppes, wolves quench their thirst in the fields with gourds - watermelons and melons. Hungry predators even attack bears in hibernation, they will not miss the opportunity to tear apart a weakened and sick animal, eating up to 10-14 kg of meat at a time. A starving polar wolf eats a hare whole, with bones and skin. An interesting feature wolves are considered to have a habit of returning to the corpses of an uneaten victim, as well as hiding excess meat in reserve.

Types of wolves, photos and names

In the canine (wolf) family, several genera are distinguished, which include different types of wolves:

1. Rod Wolves (lat. Canis)
   • Wolf, he is a gray wolf, or an ordinary wolf (lat. canis lupus), which includes many subspecies, including domestic dogs and Dingo dogs (secondarily feral):
     • Canis lupus albus(Kerr, 1792) - tundra wolf,
     • † Canis lupus alces(Goldman, 1941),
     • canis lupus arabs(Pocock, 1934) - Arabian wolf,
     • Canis lupus arctos(Pocock, 1935) - Melville island wolf,
     • Canis lupus baileyi(Nelson and Goldman, 1929) - Mexican wolf,
     • † Canis lupus beothucus(G. M. Allen and Barbour, 1937) - Newfoundland wolf,
     • † Canis lupus bernardi(Anderson, 1943),
     • Canis lupus campestris(Dwigubski, 1804) - desert wolf, he is also a steppe wolf,
     • Canis lupus chanco(Grey, 1863),
     • canis lupus columbianus(Goldman, 1941),
     • Canis lupus crassodon(Hall, 1932) Vancouver island wolf,
     • † Canis lupus deitanus(Cabrera, 1907) (in some classifications it is a synonym for the subspecies Canis lupus lupus),
     • canis lupus dingo(Meyer, 1793) - Dingo dog, or secondarily feral domestic dog,
     • Canis lupus familiaris(Linnaeus, 1758) - dog,
     • Canis lupus filchneri(Matschie, 1907),
     • Canis lupus floridanus(Miller, 1912),
     • † canis lupus fuscus(Richardson, 1839),
     • Canis lupus gregoryi(Goldman, 1937),
     • † Canis lupus griseoalbus(Baird, 1858),
     • Canis lupus hallstromi(Troughton, 1958) - New Guinea singing dog (in some classifications it is a synonym for the subspecies canis lupus dingo),
     • † Canis lupus hattai(Kishida, 1931) - Japanese wolf, or shaman,
     • † Canis lupus hodophilax(Temminck, 1839),
     • Canis lupus hudsonicus(Goldman, 1941) - Hudson wolf,
     • † Canis lupus irremotus(Goldman, 1937),
     • Canis lupus labradorius(Goldman, 1937),
     • Canis lupus ligoni(Goldman, 1937),
     • canis lupus lupus(Linnaeus, 1758) - European wolf, he is also a Eurasian wolf, Chinese wolf, or ordinary wolf,
     • Canis lupus lycaon(Schreber, 1775) - eastern wolf, or North American timber wolf,
     • Canis lupus mackenzii(Anderson, 1943),
     • Canis lupus manningi(Anderson, 1943),
     • † Canis lupus minor(M. Mojsisovics, 1887) (in some classifications it is a synonym for the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris),
     • † Canis lupus mogollonensis(Goldman, 1937),
     • † Canis lupus monstrabilis(Goldman, 1937),
     • Canis lupus nubilus(Say, 1823) - buffalo wolf, or wolf of the Great Plains,
     • Canis lupus occidentalis(Richardson, 1829) - the Mackenzian plains wolf, also known as the Alaskan wolf, Canadian wolf or Rocky Mountain wolf,
     • Canis lupus orion(Pocock, 1935),
     • Canis lupus pallipes(Sykes, 1831) - Asian, he is also an Indian or Iranian wolf,
     • Canis lupus pambasileus(Elliot, 1905),
     • Canis lupus rufus(Audubon and Bachman, 1851) - red wolf,
     • Canis lupus signatus(Cabrera, 1907) - the Iberian wolf (in some classifications it is a synonym for the subspecies Canis lupus lupus),
     • Canis lupus tundrarum(Miller, 1912) - polar wolf,
     • † Canis lupus youngi(Goldman, 1937) – Southern Rocky Mountain wolf.
2. Genus Maned wolves (lat. Chrysocyon)
   • Maned wolf, or guara, or aguarachay (lat. Chrysocyon brachyurus)
3. Genus Red Wolves
   • Red wolf, or mountain wolf, or Himalayan wolf, or buanzu (lat. Cuon alpinus)

Below is a description of several varieties of wolves.

• Red Wolf, he is mountain wolf, himalayan wolf or buanzu(Cuon alpinus)

A large predator, outwardly combining the features of a wolf, fox and jackal. Mature males grow from 76 to 110 cm in length. At the same time, the weight of the red wolf is 17-21 kg. The tail of animals is longer than that of other wolves, fluffy, like a fox, and grows up to 45-50 cm in length. The red wolf has a short, pointed muzzle and large, high-set ears. The main color of animals is various shades of red, and the tip of the tail is always black. A distinctive feature of the subspecies is considered to be a smaller number of teeth and from 6 to 7 pairs of nipples. Differences in fur density, color and body size made it possible to divide the species into 10 subspecies.

Biotopes of predators are attached to mountains, rocks and gorges (up to 4 thousand meters above sea level). The red wolf feeds on small animals - amphibians and rodents, as well as large animals: sambars, axises and antelopes. In summer, wolves are happy to eat various vegetation.

A significant part of the range of animals extends across the territory of Central and South Asia, predators live from the Altai Mountains and Tien Shan to Hindustan, Indochina and the Malay Archipelago. The largest population is observed in the Himalayas, in southern Iran, in India and the Pakistani Indus Valley. In other habitats, the red wolf is extremely small or completely extinct, so the species is classified as endangered and is under protection.

• Maned wolf, he is guar or aguarachai (Chrysocyon brachyurus)

A unique member of the family, its name translates as "short-tailed golden dog." Long hair up to 13 cm long grows on the nape of predators, forming a thick mane. Outwardly, the maned wolf resembles a large long-legged fox, the body length of adults is 125-130 cm, due to overly elongated limbs, the height of the wolf at the withers reaches 74-87 cm, and animals weigh from 20 to 23 kg. The obvious disproportions of the body are especially emphasized by the long muzzle, large, high-set ears and a short tail from 28 to 45 cm long. The wolf's coat is reddish-yellow, a strip of black wool runs along the spine, the legs are almost black, and the chin and end of the tail are light.

Maned wolves live exclusively on the plains, and have evolved their surprisingly long limbs, allowing them to make their way through the thickets of grass. The range of the species extends from the northeast of Brazil to the eastern regions of Bolivia, in the south it captures Paraguay and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. According to the IUCN, the state of the population is becoming vulnerable.

Predators feed on rodents, rabbits, armadillos, amphibians, insects, and also eat guava, bananas and nightshade, which rids animals of nematodes.

• eastern wolf, he is north american timber wolf(Canis lupus lycaon)

It still does not have a definite classification: a number of scientists consider it as an independent species ( canis lycaon) or considered a hybrid of a gray wolf with a red wolf or a coyote. The growth in the shoulders of mature males reaches 80 cm, females - 75 cm, with a body weight of 40 and 30 kg, respectively. The fur of the eastern wolf is yellowish-brown, shaggy, black hair grows on the back and sides, and the area behind the ears is distinguished by a reddish-brown tint.

Eastern wolves are predominantly carnivores, deer, elk and rodents become their prey.

These animals live in forests from the southeast of the Canadian province of Ontario to the province of Quebec.

• common wolf, or Gray wolf(canis lupus)

One of the largest predators among canines, with a body size reaching 1-1.6 m. The growth in the shoulders of mature individuals is from 66 to 86 cm, in especially large specimens it can be up to 90 cm. An ordinary wolf weighs from 32 to 62 kg, in the inhabitants of the northern regions of the range, body weight varies from 50 to 80 kg. The tail of predators grows up to 52 cm. The color of the fur of animals is quite variable: the inhabitants of the forests are usually gray-brown, the inhabitants of the tundra are almost white, the predators of the deserts are gray with red, only the undercoat is always gray.

The favorite food of wolves is various hoofed mammals: deer, elk, roe deer, antelopes, wild boars and small animals: mice, hares, ground squirrels. Wolves do not disdain representatives of their own family, for example, small foxes and raccoon dogs, often various domestic animals become their prey. During the ripening period, predators quench their thirst on melons, eating watermelons and melons, because they need a lot of moisture.

The range of the gray wolf passes through the territory of Eurasia and North America. In Europe, predators are distributed from Spain and Portugal to Ukraine, Scandinavia and the Balkans. In Russia, the gray wolf lives everywhere, except for Sakhalin and the Kuriles. In Asia, animals are distributed from Korea, China and Hindustan to Afghanistan and the north of the Arabian Peninsula. In North America, animals are found from Alaska to Mexico.

• red wolf(Canis lupus rufus)

At first it was considered as an independent species (lat. Canis rufus), but DNA analyzes made it possible to consider it a hybrid of a gray wolf and a coyote.

These predators are smaller than gray relatives, but larger than coyotes, their size is from 1 to 1.3 m excluding the tail, and the growth of animals is from 66 to 79 cm. Seasoned wolves weigh from 20 to 41 kg. Red wolves are leaner and longer-legged than their gray relatives, with longer ears and shorter fur. The red color of the fur is characteristic of the inhabitants of Texas; other animals in color, along with red, have gray, brownish and black tones; the back is usually black.

The diet of predators consists mainly of rodents, raccoons and hares, hunting for large prey is rare. Insects and various berries act as secondary food, and carrion is eaten on occasion.

The red wolf is the rarest subspecies, its range, originally covering the eastern United States, was reduced to small areas of Texas and Louisiana, and in the 70s of the 20th century the red wolf was completely exterminated, with the exception of 14 specimens preserved in captivity. Thanks to efforts to restore the population, out of 300 bred individuals, about a hundred predators today live within the state of North Carolina.

• tundra wolf(Canis lupus albus)

One of the especially large and poorly studied subspecies, outwardly similar to its close relative, the polar wolf, but somewhat inferior to it in size: the average weight of predators is about 42-49 kg. Although pure white wolves are found in the population, most individuals are gray-white and dark gray with no brown at all.

The developed massive jaws of the wolf with strong teeth make it possible to hunt large prey, although rodents and white hares are present in the diet.

Tundra wolves live throughout the tundra and forest-tundra of Europe and Siberia up to Kamchatka and the coast of the Arctic.

• steppe wolf, or desert wolf(Canis lupus campestris)

Poorly studied species of predators of small size, with rather rare and rough fur of a grayish-ocher color.

Desert wolves inhabit the steppe and desert landscapes of Central Asia, including the Kazakh steppes and southern Russia: Ciscaucasia, the Caspian lowland, the Ural region and the Lower Volga region.

• Eurasian wolf, he is European, steppe, Carpathian, Tibetan or to Chinese wolf, also called common wolf(canis lupus lupus)

Outwardly, the predator resembles the North American subspecies, but its fur is denser and shorter. The growth of mature males in the shoulders is about 76 cm with a body weight of 70 to 73 kg.

The smallest individuals inhabit Eastern Europe, the most massive are found in the north of Russia. The color of wolves is monochromatic or includes various combinations of gray, white, black, red and beige, and the most brightly colored specimens live in Central Europe.

The diet of European wolves depends on the area and consists mainly of medium and large prey, such as saigas, chamois, moufflons, deer, roe deer, wild boars, and even bison and yaks. Predators do not disdain smaller animals, catching hares and frogs, and in the absence of food, they feed on waste from slaughterhouses in garbage dumps.

The Carpathian wolf is considered a particularly common subspecies of the common wolf and is found in a significant range that runs through Eurasia through Western Europe, the Scandinavian countries, Russia, China, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the Himalayas.

• polar Wolf(Canis lupus tundrarum)

The closest relative of the European wolf and the completely extinct Japanese wolf. Adult males grow in length from 1.3 to 1.5 m, not counting the tail, and weigh about 85 kg, their height at the shoulders reaches 80-93 cm. The light fur of the polar wolf is extremely dense, adapted to survive in extremely cold climates and warming the beast during long hunger strikes.

Lemmings and arctic hare become the most accessible prey for predators; if the hunt is successful, the flock gets musk ox or reindeer.

The range of the species extends throughout the Arctic and undergoes slight fluctuations caused by the migrations of animals - the main food sources. The life span of a polar wolf is about 17 years.

wolf breeding

Female wolves mature at 2 years of age, males become sexually mature at the age of 3 years. The rut of wolves depends on the range and usually occurs from January to April. The mating behavior of a couple consists in mutual courtship and flirting. When new pairs are formed, fierce fights begin between males, and a weaker rival often dies.

At the time of mating, partners leave the pack and retire. The lair is settled in a secluded place (dense bushes, thickets, rock crevices), and the pregnancy of a she-wolf lasts about 62-65 days. There is usually an odd number of puppies in a litter - from 3 to 13, wolf cubs are born blind, and open their eyes only after 12-13 days. Weak puppies are culled by the female so that stronger cubs get more milk.

The grown up wolf cubs are fed by the belching of their parents, consisting of half-digested meat, then they begin to feed on the brought prey, and all members of the pack feed the cubs. By autumn, young (arrival) wolves are already beginning to participate in the hunt.

Enemies of the wolf in nature

Wolves have few natural enemies. Sometimes predators clash over sharing prey with a lynx or a bear, they can suffer and even die from injuries sustained when hunting for a large prey - an elk, a deer, a bison or a horse. Red wolves living in the USA have been attacked by alligators and cougars. Sometimes representatives of two different wolf packs arrange bloody fights among themselves, dividing the habitat, which also leads to fatal injuries. However, the main enemy of the wolf is considered to be man: setting traps and unauthorized shooting of wolves by poachers sometimes lead to a soulless and barbaric reduction in the population of these predatory animals.

wolf as a pet

Recently it has become "fashionable" to keep a wolf as a pet. The wolf is easy to train, however, he executes the commands of the owner only if it is interesting to him. True, puppies with a meek disposition become more aggressive with age and are not averse to competing with a person for leadership in the pack. A wolf at home is not always safe, so such a pet should be treated with special attention and great care.

• By purposeful hybridization of wolves and dogs, several breeds have been bred, among which the Czechoslovak Vlchak (Czechoslovakian Wolfdog) and the Sarlos Wolfdog are considered recognized.
• In the Middle Ages, wolves were considered servants of the devil and were often used as mysterious characters in fairy tales and legends, the most famous of which is the werewolf.
• Some European family coats of arms are decorated with the image of a wolf, which means that the family owes its origin to the werewolf.
• Wolves attack humans extremely rarely, and in most cases, aggression is shown by animals infected with rabies.
• To raise morale, the Vikings drank wolf blood before the battle and dressed themselves in animal skins.
• In 17th-century Ireland, there were so many wolf packs that the country was called Wolfland.

European wolves generally have shorter and thicker coats than their North American counterparts. Their size varies by region, adults reach 76 cm and weigh 70-73 kg, and females are usually 20% smaller than males. The heaviest Eurasian wolf was killed in Romania and weighed 72 kg. The color range includes white, cream, red, gray and black, sometimes with combinations of all colors. The coloration of wolves in central Europe is richer than in northern Europe. East European wolves tend to be shorter in size and heavier than those in northern Russia.

habits

Pair of European wolves.

Wolves are very social animals and despite the decrease in their territory, they form packs, although smaller than in North America. Social behavior seems to vary from region to region, exemplified by wolves living in the Carpathians, tending to hunt alone. Males and females mate between January and March. There are usually six cubs in a litter, born seven weeks later in a den dug among bushes or rocks. The male brings food to the den either by simply dragging it or by swallowing it whole and then regurgitating it back to feed others. While the cubs are growing up, the mother and other members of the pack help them feed.

Nutrition

The diet of Eurasian wolves varies greatly depending on their habitat. They usually prey on medium-sized ungulates like mouflon, chamois, saiga, wild boar, red deer, European roe deer, livestock. Wolves will also eat smaller prey like frogs and hares. In Europe, their largest prey is the bison, while in Asia it is the yak.

Due to the increasing shortage of natural prey, sometimes wolves are forced to abandon their usual pack hunting and rummage through food waste around villages and farms. Many rural settlements have open landfills where waste from local slaughterhouses is dumped. Wolves feed there along with wild or stray dogs.

Systematics

In a comparative study of the DNA of the mitochondria of various subspecies of wolves, the theory arose that the European line of wolves originally appeared more than 150,000 years ago - this is about the same age as the North American wolves, but much younger than the Asian subspecies.

North American domestic dogs are believed to have originally descended from Eurasian wolves. The first humans to colonize North America between 12,000 and 14,000 years ago brought dogs with them from Asia, and they probably became feral and mixed with the wolves found in the New World.

Story

Currently

Wolves constantly cross the border from Russia to Finland. Although they are protected by EU law, Finland has issued hunting permits based on past prevention; this resulted in the issuance of a regulation by the European Commission in 2005. In June 2007, the European Court of Justice ruled that Finland had violated the Directive on environment, but both sides failed in at least one of their demands. The number of wolves in Finland reaches approximately 250.

It is believed that the largest population of wolves, compared to other peoples, is in Kazakhstan. It is 90,000. For comparison, this is 3.5 times more than in Canada, where there are 60,000 of them. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, hunting for wolves became less profitable. Approximately 2,000 are slaughtered annually for a $40 premium, and the animal population has skyrocketed. At the same time, poachers have reduced the prey of Kazakh wolves, such as saiga, from 1.5 million to 150,000 by selling the antlers to the Chinese, who use them in their traditional medicine. The large number of saigas contributed to the large number of wolves in Kazakhstan. Now, after the extermination of saigas, wolves invade human settlements in the winter and attack livestock. In spring they return to the remote, slightly wooded hills of Amangeldy, where they breed and feed on small mammals.

The British government signed conventions in the 1980s and 1990s agreeing to consider releasing wolves into the wild and to promote public awareness of them. As a party to the European agreements, the British government is required to study the desirability of returning extinct species and to consider reintroducing wolves. Although there are signs that wolves are repopulating areas in Western Europe, they cannot return to their original habitats in Britain without the active help of people. The Scottish Highlands is one of the few large areas in Western Europe with a relatively tiny population, which provides a quiet life for wolves, which is usually hindered by human activity. A popular argument for releasing wolves to their former habitats is that the populations of red deer in the Scottish Highlands are too large, and the return of wolves would help to control their numbers, thus giving respite to the local flora. Other arguments include income generation and job creation in the highlands through wolf ecotourism, which could replace the declining and wasteful mountain sheep farming.

Crossbreeding with dogs

wild crosses

There is some concern that European wolf populations often interbreed with wild dogs. The scientists examined and analyzed reports of mitochondrial and biparental genetic markers in dogs and in wild populations of wolf-like canine species. Although wolf-dog crossbreeding has been observed in the wild, no significant fusion of dog and wild wolf populations has yet occurred. Scientific research has led to the suggestion that crossbreeding is not particularly important for the survival of even the small populations of wolves that live in close proximity to human settlements. The degree of physical and behavioral differences between dogs and wolves can be great enough to ensure that mating is unlikely and mixed offspring rarely survive to continue breeding in the wild. Attempts to re-import wolves into Germany were thwarted when dog hybrids were found among their offspring.

Czechoslovak wolfhound

In 1955, an experiment was conducted in Czechoslovakia, during which a German shepherd was mated with a Carpathian wolf. A decade later, the resulting offspring were selectively bred to improve the qualities of the dog and combine them with the useful characteristics of the wolf. The result of this was the creation of the so-called Czechoslovak wolfhound. The wolfhound is more loyal, but more stubborn and much more sociable, expressing his emotions in ways other than barking. The heritage of the wolf also gave him a longer lifespan than other dogs, allowing him to live about 12-16 years. In 1982, the wolfhound was recognized as the official national breed of Czechoslovakia and in 1999 it became the state standard.

Folklore

Fenrir, a giant wolf bound by the gods.

Significant appeals to the image of the ancestor wolf are made in many works of literature.

In Jiang Rong's semi-autobiographical novel Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, the nomadic Mongols recount that from observing wolves they learned battle tactics that helped them build a vast empire, as well as an understanding of the importance of balancing the ecosystem in the plains.

Notes

Links

• International Wolf Center
• Wolves in Romania and Kazakhstan
• News about wolves in the German media (eng.)
• Return of the wolf to Germany
• Wolves and hybrids in Sachsen
• A map with the distribution of the wolves in europe (PDF)
• The Wolves and Humans Foundation
• Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe

The genus of wolves is one of the smallest
Among mammals, the genus of wolves is one of the smallest. It includes only 7 species: wolf (Canis lupus); common jackal (Canis aureus); coyote (Canis latrans); red wolf (Canis rufus); black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas); striped jackal (Canis adustus); Ethiopian jackal (Canis simensis), wild and domestic dogs. In addition, the wolf family includes all foxes, arctic foxes, the raccoon dog and the maned wolf.

Appeared about 1 million years ago
The wolf evolved from carnivorous predators that lived 100 million years ago, and dogs evolved from the wolf about 20 million years ago. As a species, Canis lupus developed in Eurasia about 1 million years ago, and by the end of the Pleistocene it became the most common predator.

wolf ancestors
Dogs and wolves are descended from miacids that lived on earth 50 million years ago. Their immediate ancestors were the race of predatory mammals Hesperocyon (35 million years ago). During the Miocene, from the mammals Borophaginae, the Canidae family stands out. Fossils of representatives of the Canis family were found in Spain and date back 7 million years. The immediate ancestors of the American steppe wolves settled in North America between 4 and 2 million years ago. During this period, the Etruscan wolf (Canis etruscus) lived in Europe, which became the direct ancestor of European wolves (Canis lupus). The formation of the modern species took place 1 million years ago.

most common predator
Among all land mammals, Canis lupus wolves have the widest range of habitat. At present, only the gray rat, with the help of man, has been able to spread wider than the wolf. Wolves live in many areas of Europe, Asia and North America, where only large ungulates are found: from the taiga, coniferous forests and icy tundra to deserts. The northern border of the distribution of the wolf is the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In southern Asia, in Hindustan, the wolf is distributed up to about 16 "northern latitude. In its range, the wolf is very variable, forming many subspecies that differ in size, color, and some lifestyle features. Zoologists distinguish several dozen subspecies of the wolf. The largest wolves inhabit the tundra, the smallest are the southern regions.

Between coyote and wolf
American zoologists believe that the states of Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida are inhabited by special kind- Red Wolf. This very rare animal has been preserved in small numbers in the southwest of North America. It occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between the coyote and the wolf, given its size and some other characteristics. Some zoologists consider it a hybrid of a wolf and a coyote, others - a special subspecies of the wolf, others - give a separate species status.

Wolves big and small
There are 41 species in the canine family. The wolves of the northern populations are larger, those of the southern populations are smaller. On average, the length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail is 1000 - 1300 mm (males), 870 - 1170 mm (females). Tail length 350 - 520 mm. Weight 30-80 kg (males), 55 kg on average, 23-55 kg (females), 45 kg on average. Height at the withers (from the base of the paw to the shoulder) 60 - 90 cm.

wolf color
... varies depending on the distribution area. White individuals are found in the Arctic, other colors are variants of white with gray, brown, cinnamon, black, sometimes completely black. North American populations have three color phases. The first (normal) is a mixture of black, gray and cinnamon with a brown top. The second is black (a mixture of black and dark brown). The third phase is gray with brown. From coyotes (Canis latrans) and red wolves (Canis rufus), similarly colored wolves Canis lupus differ in size (they are 50 -100% larger), wide muzzle, shorter ears and higher paws.

thick fur
Thick fur up to 8 centimeters long protects the wolf from frost. The layer of fur closest to the body is the undercoat, and the outer layer is formed by hard, long, black outer hairs at the ends. They repel water, and the undercoat does not get wet. Swift-legged deer can run away, and moose can give a worthy rebuff: these 600-kilogram giants with sharp horns and heavy hooves do not have to break a wolf's skull.

wolf teeth
The weapon of the wolf is the teeth. There are as many as 42 of them in his mouth. 4 sharp, crooked 5-centimeter fangs stick out in front - two at the top and bottom. With them, the wolf can bite through the dense skin of the victim. And predatory, or carnivorous, teeth - this is the name of the molars of all predators - an adult wolf gnaws even the femur of an elk.

Smell and hearing
When hunting, the nose, not the ears or eyes, is the first to tell the wolves where to look for prey. In the wind, they catch the smell of even the smallest animal, located 1-2 kilometers from them, when it is not yet heard or seen. Thanks to their keen sense of smell, wolves can follow the tracks of their prey. The hunter needs a keen ear, and in this respect the wolves are lucky. When they hear a noise, they move their ears and determine where the sound is coming from. The sound source may be several kilometers away.

Moves silently and quickly
Wolves hunt almost silently because they run on the very tips of their fingers. Just like horses and cats, the wolf does not touch the ground with its heel. He has strong muscular legs and a sweeping gait, and he can trot for a long time at a speed of 9 km / h, and in pursuit of deer and elk, accelerate to 60 km / h.

The social life of the wolf
Wolves live in families of 2 to 15, usually 4 to 8 animals. A flock is a family group consisting of animals of different ages. Usually the flock consists of parents, arrived (brood of this year) and pereyarki (animals that have not reached puberty). But very often it also includes several adult animals, apparently not taking part in reproduction. In years with abundant food, up to 30 wolves or more can gather in a family. Young wolves usually stay in the family for 10-54 months, after which they leave.

The flock is a self-regulating mechanism
If the population density is low, then the flocks are small, the separation of the younger generation occurs faster. Under favorable environmental conditions, the population density increases, in which case the size of the flock increases, but up to a certain limit. Growth occurs only at the expense of non-herding lone wolves, occupying a subordinate position. Thus, in the pack there is a "core" of wolves with a high social status and subordinate wolves. With the deterioration of the environment, at the birth of a new generation, it is the subordinate male wolves who leave the pack on their own, and the females are expelled by the most important female.

Males and females in a flock
A pack of wolves consists of a-male, a-female, b-male, low-ranking wolves of both sexes and puppies that are outside the hierarchy. During the mating season and before it, the a-female is extremely aggressive towards all sexually mature females. Although she prefers the a-male, she can also mate with other mature males, including low-ranking ones. But largest number She still maintains contacts with the a-male. After the rut, her aggressiveness drops sharply, and she behaves friendly towards all members of the pack, which contributes to the establishment of a climate favorable for raising puppies in the family.
The A-male, in the figurative expression of Cymen, "tolerant boss", is a real leader in the pack - he is friendly to all its members, but exclusively aggressively meets strangers. Almost all the activity of the flock is concentrated around him, and he also owns leadership in marking behavior.
The B-male is the most likely successor to the a-male. Usually this is the son or brother of an a-male or a-female, or their common. Thus, he is closely related to the puppies, being their elder brother or uncle. The B-male demonstrates high aggressiveness towards low-ranking members of the pack, but sometimes it is also addressed to high-ranking ones. The B-male, demonstrating aggression towards the a-male, periodically checks the status of the latter, as he is his successor in the hierarchy and is constantly ready to take his place.
The role of low-ranking males is determined primarily by the advantages that the pack receives from collective hunting for large ungulates, often larger than the predators themselves. The chances of low-ranking males to leave offspring are very limited. They have to wait a long time for their turn in the hierarchical goal of leadership. At the same time, such animals are the most likely contenders for a leading position when entering a new flock.

Family hunting ground
The survival of the pack depends on the size of its hunting grounds, so the wolves protect them not for life, but for death. The borders of the territory (it can be 50-1500 sq. km, depending on what animals the pack hunts) are marked by odorous marks - they spray stumps and large stones with urine - and notify neighbors of their rights by howling. Family groups of wolves living in the same territory are closely related, the areas of neighboring families may overlap, but they never collide. If there is an abundance of food, then many generations of wolves live in one area.

The size of the family territory is highly dependent on the landscape.
...and varies widely. The largest family plots are in open landscapes of the tundra, steppe or semi-desert, where they reach 1000 - 1250 km2. In the forest zone they are smaller - 200 - 250 km2.

Border signs
Wolves mark their territory with urine, feces, or by leaving scratches on paths, fallen trees, and stand-alone stumps. Litter of wolves, drying, acquires a white color and is visible at a great distance in an open place. It seems that wolves sometimes specifically choose the most visible places to leave their droppings. In Altai, the droppings of a large wolf were found on the seat of a mower, which towered a meter and a half above the ground. The mower itself stood for many days in the middle of a spacious clearing, very noticeable from the road, along which wolves regularly walked, gathering in places where the deer roared.

Wolves wander
When wolves do not have small cubs, they rarely live permanently in one place. For the most part, the animals go quite far and leave their inhabited places for several days or weeks, only to return here again when they find prey. The wolf undertakes its wanderings both in packs and alone, making its way along the mountain ranges, crossing large steppes, moving from one forest to another, and as a result sometimes appears in areas where no wolves have been seen for several years in a row. It has been proven that during these wanderings wolves run from 40 to 70 kilometers in one night.

They gather in flocks in winter
In spring and summer, a wolf lives alone or in pairs, in autumn - with a whole family, in winter, these predators sometimes gather in packs, the size of which depends on the conditions of the area where they live. If a wolf and a she-wolf form a couple, then their union almost never breaks up; in the spring, pairs are formed necessarily; in large flocks, males predominate.

Sign language
They express their feelings through facial expressions and body movements. "Wolf tongue" unites the pack and helps it to act as one.

Tail
If the tail is up and its tip is slightly curved, this means that the wolf is quite confident in himself. In a friendly wolf, the tail is lowered, but the very tip of it looks up. A wolf with its tail between its legs is either afraid of something or communicates its sympathy in this way. The way a wolf holds its tail speaks of its position in the pack. Among the leaders, it is raised high, among their "subjects" it is lowered, and those who stand at the lowest degree in the wolf family tuck their tail. Dancing and wagging its tail, the wolf invites relatives to play.

welcome ceremony
Members of the pack show love and respect to the leader in a welcoming ceremony. Crawling, with flattened ears and smoothed hair, they approach the leader or his girlfriend, lick and gently bite his muzzle.

aggression and tolerance
Thanks to mutual tolerance, it is possible to unite the pack during group hunts, accompanied by fine coordination of the actions of its members. Behavioral mechanisms based on mutual tolerance and the desire for unification prevail in Everyday life flocks. The frequency of aggressive contacts in wolves in natural and artificial conditions is probably very different. Limited space does not allow wolves to avoid mutual psychological pressure, maintaining a constantly high overall level of aggressiveness. For animals with a highly developed psyche, such as wolves, psychological relief is of great importance. In the field, we have repeatedly observed that during the day during the rest, the wolves were dispersed at a distance of tens and hundreds of meters from each other. Even the puppies that grew up by the end of the summer did not always stick together.

Muzzle
In a surge of tenderness, the wolves lick each other and rub their muzzles. The muzzles of wolves are very expressive. Frightened, the wolf presses his ears and depicts a semblance of a smile. An angry wolf bares his teeth, and turns his upright ears forward. Sensing danger, he turns his ears back, bares his teeth and sticks out his tongue.

Cruel laws of the pack
In a pack where the leader keeps order, wolves usually do not fight among themselves. However, skirmishes are common with strangers or lone wolves that have violated the border of possessions. Each wolf pack hunts only in its own territory. The owners strictly guard and mark it, warning the neighbors that they should stay away. Any uninvited guest will be punished. In large packs, it often happens that a wolf is poisoned by all his relatives. Sometimes the outcast becomes completely unbearable, and he is forced to leave the pack.

When Wolves Are Most Dangerous
In autumn and winter, the wolf becomes much more dangerous, as it constantly roams around the herds still grazing and attacks both large and small livestock, but it is wary of adult horses, cows and pigs when they go in a herd, and the wolves have not yet gathered in packs. At the beginning of winter, he comes closer and closer to villages and cities, and in small places he hunts for dogs, which he loves very much and which often constitute in some places his only prey.

They go in single file
Quite often in winter, and almost always in deep snow, packs of wolves walk in single file, and each animal, like Indians on a military path, follows each other, stepping on the same track if possible (lynxes do this too), so that even an experienced it is difficult for a hunter to know how many wolves a pack consists of.

Distribution of duties when hunting
When wolves hunt in packs, they know how to distribute responsibilities among themselves very well: part of the pack chases prey, while the other cuts its path and bites it.

wolf vs bear
In Russia, they say that hungry packs of wolves attack the bear and, after a long fight, kill it. The observations of Kremenets confirm that wolves sometimes disturb a bear in its winter lair, pursue wounded bears and try to capture cubs.

They attack people
A flock of wolves mad with hunger, on occasion, of course, can attack people, even adults and armed ones; it may happen that wolves will both bite and devour a person, but in any case, the danger from wolves in those countries where there are many of them is not at all as great as it is often imagined. A lone wolf rarely attacks a grown man, even one armed with a single club; such behavior can be caused only by special circumstances, for example, if the wolf is rabid or the she-wolf is afraid for her cubs.

Sitting in ambush for hours
During the search for prey, the wolf approaches the chosen victim with all possible caution, sneaks up to the animal imperceptibly, grabs it by the throat with a deft jump and knocks it to the ground. On forest paths, he sometimes waits for hours on end for prey, such as deer or roe deer, and in the steppe areas, in the same way, he patiently watches for a boba that has hidden in a mink. He follows the trail of the beast with unerring confidence.

Cunning in hunting
When hunting, wolves use cunning, making sure that the prey has gone far ahead, they stop chasing, and when a deer or elk slows down, they attack it again. Often wolves refuse to attack from an elk, which is actively defending itself, and leave to look for other prey. If the ungulate defends itself, and then tries to flee - this is a clear sign of weakness, the wolves pursue such a victim to the end.

Wolves understand humans worse than dogs

Between a man and a dog there is a unique connection at the genetic level, which is inherited. Two containers were placed in front of the puppies and wolf cubs, one of which contained meat. Then the researchers made it clear to the animals which food was hidden: the scientists pointed to the "correct" container with gestures, touched or gazed at it. The puppies won a landslide victory - man's best friend each time quickly "guessed" where the meat was, leaving no chance for the wolves. Wolves are behaviorally better adapted to the wild environment, where communication with people is not the highest priority.

Attacks the fox
Foxes often become victims of wolves. If the wolves meet a fox on the plain, then they try to surround it immediately, and some start chasing it. But wolves only kill foxes, leaving them in place, and very rarely eat them. This incomprehensible feature of the behavior of a predator was noted by many zoologists. Among hunters there is a sign: where there are many wolves, foxes disappear

Distracts from the herd of dogs
When attacking a herd, wolves very cunningly try to distract dogs from it. When many wolves gather, and there are several dogs and shepherds with a herd, then part of the wolves attacks the dogs, and the other attacks the sheep.

Ungulates are driven out to the crust
In winter, wolves often drive ungulates to the crust. The relative load on the track in wolves is 2-3 times less than in most ungulates. Therefore, the victims of wolves, running away along the crust, get tired very quickly, falling into deep snow, and often in the process they injure their legs on the sharp edges of the frozen snow.

Driven into an ambush or a dead end
Wolves are excellent at navigating the terrain. Many packs constantly, from year to year, use the same parts of the territory to drive the victim into a dead end. Such dead ends can be blockages of trees, placers of stones or a dead end in the truest sense of the word - a sheer cliff or a deep gully in a ravine. Wolves often drive saiga saigas into dry lakes, where in autumn and spring the bottom softened by water turns into difficult to pass mud, and ungulates move with great difficulty. Getting into a dead end, ungulates begin to rush about, trying to break out of it. In rubble or heaps of stones, they often break their limbs and then become easy prey for wolves.

Long chase the victim
Often they can move behind the herd without betraying their presence and waiting for the right moment for decisive action. Such passive pursuit can last for many days. Prolonged active pursuit of prey is not typical for wolves. As a rule, this is a short jerk for several tens, less often - several hundred meters.

Wolves can "mouse"
Like foxes, wolves can "mouse", hunting for small rodents and insectivores. After waiting for, for example, a vole to appear on the surface, the wolf in a jump presses it down with its paw and eats it. This is a common hunting technique of lone wolves, adults and young, in the summer. In summer, the pack breaks up In the summer, when the parents feed the puppies, and the pack breaks up and the predators live alone or in small groups, wolves eat insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and various mammals, on which they also worked out skillful hunting techniques. More often than others, hares become victims of wolves.

wolf diet
The basis of the diet of the wolf is made up of large ungulates - reindeer and red deer, elk, saigas, sheep and goats, caribou, in the absence of which he hunts rodents, rabbits, and eats carrion. Where there are no ungulates, there are no or very few wolves. Wolves are also attracted to large concentrations of domestic animals. In areas of reindeer and sheep breeding, the presence of wolves is common.

How much food does a wolf need
The wolf needs at least 1.5 kg of food per day, and much more - 2.3 kg - for successful reproduction. Wolves can go without food for two weeks or more. On average, wolves eat 4.5 kg of meat per day, and in case of successful prey, they can eat more - up to 9 kg. The wolf, due to its bloodthirstiness, did not exterminate much more animals than it needs to saturate. Wolves kill young ungulates, or old and sick ones. Attacks on ungulates are especially frequent during the winter months, when the wolf has clear advantages when moving on snow.

In summer it eats fruits and berries.
In the summer, plant foods occupy a large place in the diet of the wolf: fruits, berries, greens. It was noted that in the vicinity of the family day out, on an area of ​​more than one hectare, blueberries were bitten by wolves. The wolves ate the top shoots along with the berries. Numerous litter of predators on the day was everywhere painted in a soft blue color. The wolves regularly fed on mulberries and apples, which fell in abundance from the trees.

Food storage
A characteristic feature of the feeding behavior of wolves, like many other predators, is the storage of food. When satiated, animals often bury pieces of meat. But they probably do not remember the exact location of the pantry, but remember the area where the victim was killed and eaten. Moving by shuttle, like a setter dog, wolves instinctively discover a pantry, and not necessarily their own.

howl
It is believed that wolves howl to find out about the location of their family members, to announce the capture of prey, or simply from the desire to communicate with relatives. Under natural conditions, wolves usually howl in the late evening hours, less often at night and early in the morning. Wolf howling is heard at a distance of 10 km. Under artificial conditions, their sound activity can be strongly shifted, which depends on the general mode of activity of animals, due to the specifics of the daily dynamics of stimuli that excite the motivation for consolidation. In artificial conditions, the behavior of wolves is largely human-oriented. Contacts with him usually differ in a certain rhythm. For example, in the vivarium, wolves howled most often around lunchtime, when people serving the animals usually passed by the enclosures. The wolves knew them well and reacted positively to them, as they regularly received random food from them. The expectation of people, their appearance and disappearance aroused the consolidation motivation in wolves. They began to whine and often the whining turned into a prewar and then into a howl. During the year, wolves howl most frequently in winter, when pack numbers are at their highest. In winter, wolves stay in the most close-knit and numerous groups, facilitating collective hunting for large ungulates. It is in winter that such hunts are especially characteristic of wolves. The activity of howling wolves also increases in late summer and early autumn, during the period of territory development by puppies, when they begin to move especially widely across the family plot. But if in winter during the schooling period spontaneous group howling is more characteristic for wolves, then in early autumn it is single and caused by group.

Shelter
Wolves do not have a hole, except for the lair where the she-wolf breeds. Usually the wolf curls up into a ball. covers its paws and nose with its tail and allows the snow to powder itself. A wolf's lair is a hole that is located high above the water level near a reservoir. From the inside, it is not equipped with anything. The length of the tunnel is from 1.8 to 7.5 m, sometimes more. The wolf family returns to the same lair for many years. Wolf cubs leave the den at the age of 8 weeks.

wolf lair
Wolves make their lairs in sheltered, well-defended areas. They can be canopies in the rocks, deep cracks, niches, gullies in ravines, fallen trees. Often, wolves use burrows of other animals as dens: foxes, arctic foxes, badgers, marmots. Wolves expand other people's burrows and very rarely dig their own, choosing for this the soft, usually sandy soil of the Lair, as well as family days on which the cubs spend the first months of their lives, meet two requirements: the presence of shelters from dense vegetation or microrelief and at the same time good review terrain to detect danger. It is difficult to approach the lair of wolves unnoticed. As a rule, animals detect a person and manage to hide before a person detects them.

reproduction
Only one pair per family enters breeding, this occurs in February, and 6-10 (usually 7) puppies are born in April. The cubs' eyes open on the 9-12th day. At the end of the second week, they usually begin to respond to sounds, and after three weeks they first emerge from the nest and around the same time they begin to taste meat. In the neonatal period, wolf cubs are completely helpless. The mother helps them to toilet by licking under the tail. Puppies are not able to rise at this time to their feet and crawl. They are constantly in physical contact with their mother or with each other. Puppies sleep most of the time. The she-wolf diligently hides from prying eyes. If the family is in any danger, then the she-wolf carries her cubs in her mouth one by one to another, more secluded place. In the early days, the she-wolf is constantly with the puppies. The wolf feeds her. He brings food in the stomach and regurgitates it to the female. Gradually, the she-wolf leaves the puppies alone, often and for a long time away in search of food. According to the observations of Ya. K. Badridze, the female leaves the wolf cubs for 6.5 - 68 hours, that is, she can be absent for almost three days. The duration of the absence of the female strongly depends on the abundance of food in the vicinity of the lair. The more accessible it is, the less time the she-wolf leaves the puppies. Usually, when the female leaves the den, the cubs are left alone, gathering in a heap to keep warm. The wolf is rarely with them in the den. But if the puppies crawl up to the father, he does not drive them away, warming them with the warmth of his body. When the babies have grown up, the female goes to hunt with the pack, and all family members feed the puppies, burping food for them. Growing up, puppies leave the den, but do not move away from it and stay nearby. Usually in this place there is a lot of vegetation and it is located near the water. Wolf cubs learn to hunt by attacking mice and shrews. Young wolves grow up to the third year and then become capable of reproduction.

mother wolf
does not show aggressiveness towards people close to her children. There are cases when hunters took the entire brood from the lair, put the helpless puppies in a bag and carried them away, and at that time the she-wolf watched uneasily at a distance and then accompanied the hunters to the village for several kilometers without making any attempts to attack.

Close to its nest, the wolf never hunts
that is why young roe deer and wolf cubs often play together in the same clearing. Growing wolf cubs can frolic in an absolutely open, well-viewed place, but such a playground is necessarily adjacent to either dense thickets, or a pile of stones and labyrinths of passages in rocks and ravines. In these shelters, wolf cubs, and even adult wolves, instantly “dissolve”, without betraying their presence in any way.

Foxes destroy wolf cubs
A case of the destruction of a brood of wolves by a male fox in the Badkhyz Reserve in Turkmenistan is described. The cubs were about three weeks old, and they were left without parents for a long time, since for some reason the male was not there, and the she-wolf was forced to leave the den for a long time.

Young wolves die
Young wolves, whose mother is killed, often disappear without a trace, and, in all likelihood, the stomachs of old wolves become their graves. If the cubs are not disturbed in their nest, then this must be attributed to the vigilance of the mother rather than the love of the father.

Wolf fathers
The father participates in obtaining food for the cubs, but the question of this should be considered as not yet resolved. Only later, when the young wolves grow up, the mother brings them to the old wolves, and they accept the babies into their society, always answer their squeals with a howl, train them, warn of danger and howl plaintively if the cubs die.

How long do wolves live
Wolves can live 12-15 years; many of them die of starvation, others perish from a variety of diseases to which they are subject in the same way as dogs.

Wolves exterminated
Under the influence of man, the range of the wolf has sharply decreased over the past 200-250 years. Man exterminates the wolf, protecting herds of domestic animals, and forces him out of densely populated areas. The wolf is currently absent from Japan and the British Isles. It is exterminated in France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, throughout Central Europe.

rare beast
In the northern hemisphere, the wolf is considered a rare animal and is listed on the CITES List (Appendix I) of India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Nepal and (Appendix II) in other countries. In North America, the gray wolf is an endangered species for Mexico and 48 US states (with the exception of Minnesota, where the species is endangered). The protection of wolves is reduced to the preservation of the habitual habitats of wolves, the prevention of its hybridization with domestic dogs and educational activities among the population, which has long persecuted wolves.

Norway is cleared of predatory animals

The Association of Norwegian Forest Owners announced its intention to achieve the extermination of wolves in Norway, as well as a decrease in the number of other large predators and bears, lynxes and wolverines.

Wolves take over Swedish forests

The number of wolves in Scandinavia began to decline rapidly in the early 20th century. By 1960, it was believed that they had finally disappeared. However, in the mid-1980s, wolves suddenly reappeared in Sweden. Research scientists have shown that they came here, having traveled almost 1000 km from neighboring Finland. The periodic arrival of new animals from the east contributes to the recovery of a small population, which is threatened by degeneration due to closely related crossing. There are currently about 100 wolves in Scandinavia, including 10 actively breeding groups.

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