* There is no documented account of a healthy wolf ever attacking a human.
* It is highly likely that at one time or another the land your home is on was once the home of a wolf pack (greatest natural range of any mammal except humans).
* Pups are born completely blind and deaf, depending on the their mother and other members of the pack. The whole pack takes care and raises the pups (non-breeding females produce milk and males compete to baby sit).
* Dominant males can stare down other wolves in the pack to prevent a fight and dominate female do the same to prevent females from mating with her mate (fights are very rare).
* Some members stay with the pack for life.
* Each pack has a leading, dominate pair (male and female) called the Alpha
* Wolves can run up to 40 miles an hour and can easily cover 50 miles a day
* By smell alone wolves can locate prey, other pack members or enemies. It can tell them if other wolves were in the territory, if they were male or female, and how recently they visited.
* Less than one percent of sheep and cattle are killed each year by wolves. Loss of cattle to poisonous plants, diseases and poor husbandry account for more deaths. A few years ago 11 people were gored by bison in Yellowstone but the bison weren't given a bad rap.
* Wolves howl to communicate, advertise their existence, warn off intruders, greet other wolves, mark their territory, gather the pack or enjoyment. Wolves never howl at full moons (but call the pack together because visibility is good for hunting). Wolves also communicate by the position of the tails, lips, nose and ears.
Wolves live in family groups called packs. A pack is usually made up of a male parent, a female parent, their pups and a few other adult wolves who are the older brothers and sisters. The pack works together to hunt for food and to take care of the pups.
An average adult female wolf in Minnesota weighs 60 to 80 pounds. Males usually weigh 80 to 100 pounds. Pups weigh about one pound when they are born (in the spring) but grow quickly. They reach adult size by nine months of age and will run with the pack their first winter.
Wolves are predators. That means they kill and eat other animals for food. Depending on where they live, wolves live mainly on the meat from such animals as deer, moose, elk or bison. They also eat beavers, rabbits and even mice. They do not eat humans. In fact, wolves are very shy around people and try to avoid them in the wild. Because they usually hunt for large animals, the wolves work together to catch their prey. They usually catch animals that are sick, injured, very old or very young, because they are easier to catch. Wolves will eat a healthy, strong animal if they can catch it. Wolves need an average of three to ten pounds of meat each day. Hunting is not always successful, so their bodies are designed to feast (eat a lot) or famine (eat nothing). Wolves can eat as much as 22 pounds of meat at a time and then may not eat again for many days.
Wolves used to live throughout most of the United States. Now they only live in a few places. Alaska has 5,000 to 7,000 wolves. In northern Minnesota, where the International Wolf Center is, there are close to 2,000. There are also about 180 in Wisconsin and Michigan and about 100 in the western United States. In most states, wolves are on the Endangered Species list. This means that our government is working to protect them, because they are in danger of becoming extinct in some areas. (Extinct means there are none left.) Almost everyone agrees that we don't want any more animals to become extinct.
Why have wolves become endangered? There are many reasons for this. Most people used to be afraid of wolves and thought they were dangerous to humans. For a long time, people tried to kill all the wolves. They would get money for bringing in a dead wolf. This is called bounty hunting. They also worried that wolves would eat all their livestock - cows, sheep, pigs - so they poisoned wolves whenever they could. Poisoning is probably the main reason there are so few wolves left today. Another reason has to do with the growing human population. People need land in order to live and raise their families. Wolves need lots of land, away from humans, to live and raise their families. As our population has grown, the amount of wilderness where wolves can live has gotten smaller. To help protect the wolf, we will need to help protect the wilderness that is left.
Baby wolves are called pups. Usually four to six pups are born together. This is called a litter, and the pups in a litter are called litter mates. Pups are born inside a den. A den is sometimes a small cave or a hole dug out of the ground. The den must be big enough for the mother and her pups. It shelters them from the weather and protects the pups from other animals that may want to hurt them. Packs sometimes use the same den year after year. At other times, they make or find a new den each year.
Pups grow inside their mother for about 63 days before being born. At birth they weigh only one pound, and their eyes are closed. Pups grow quickly. About 12 to 15 days after they are born, they open their eyes. By two weeks of age, the pups can walk, and about a week after that, they may come out of the den for the first time. At first, they live only on milk from their mother. In a few weeks, they start eating more and more meat. This is brought to them in the stomachs of the adult wolves. The pups lick around the mouth of the adult, and the food comes back up into the adult's mouth. This sounds terrible to us, but wolf pups love it! When pups are six months old, they look almost like adult wolves. Around this time, they start hunting with the rest of the pack.
All the wolves in a pack help take care of the pups. When the pups are very small, other pack members bring food to the mother so she does not have to leave the den. When the pups are a little bigger, pack members "take turns" bringing them food, playing with them and even "babysitting." 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, 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.
(From Steven Today's Wolf Page && the International Wolf Center)
