UIOP GM

20/11/2021

Marathon runners
Although the above-noted speed is not super fast for a top predator (a cheetah can travel at up to 75 mph in short bursts), wolves are ultra marathon endurance hunters. They have been known to track and trace their prey for hours well into the night. And they have the added bonus of a high IQ and excellent sense of hearing and smell, all of which they put to good use in rounding up their next meal.

20/11/2021

Wolves are as long as really tall people – but much faster
While the average length of female wolves is 4.5 to 6 feet from nose to tail, males can grow up to 6.5 feet in length. This is partly why they can sprint at speeds of 36 to 38 miles per hour for short distances, though unless they are on the chase they tend to cruise at a more leisurely pace of about 5 mph.

20/11/2021

It’s all in the howl
Perhaps the most well known characteristic of the grey wolf is its penetrating, hauntingly beautiful howl. This is a primary communication tool, both between lone wolves and their pack, as well as between packs. When it comes to territory, inter-pack howling will determine the size and strength of different pack, often determining weather or not to attack or retreat.

20/11/2021

Wolves will die for each other
In addition to a trend toward monogamy, wolves develop such strong social bonds for their family and other loved ones, they have been known to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the pack / family unit. Move over Romeo and Juliet!

20/11/2021

True love
Once a wolf has found a mate, they tend to stay together for better or worse, through sickness and health, often until death due them part. Of course it is typically only the alpha male and female that breed, leaving the rest of the adult pack members to help rear the young and ensure their survival.

20/11/2021

Like many apex predators, wolves play important ecological roles in their habitats. A widely cited example occurred about a century ago in Yellowstone National Park, where native gray wolves were eliminated by 1920. Initially viewed as a benefit, the loss of wolves lost its luster as the park's elk population exploded.

Without wolves to reduce their numbers or chase them away from prime feeding areas, Yellowstone's growing elk herds began to feast unsustainably. They ate young aspen trees too quickly for groves to regenerate, devoured food sources needed by other species, and stripped important vegetation along the banks of streams and wetlands, increasing erosion.

20/11/2021

Wolf packs need large territories to supply them with enough prey, but the size can vary widely depending on factors such as climate, terrain, prey abundance, and the presence of other predators.

Gray wolf territories range in size from 50 to 1,000 square miles, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.12 Wolves can cover large areas while hunting, traveling up to 30 miles in a day. They primarily trot at about 5 mph, but can run as fast as 40 mph for short distances.

20/11/2021

We may not be able to fully understand the emotional experience of another species, but studying cortisol levels in f***l samples is one way scientists can estimate stress in wild animals. Comparing those hormone levels with other data about the animals' daily lives might then point to sources of stress. In one study of 450 f***l samples from 11 wolf packs, for example, researchers found the death of a pack member likely induces "important stress in the remainder of the social unit."

20/11/2021

Wolves do howl at night, but contrary to popular belief, these soulful calls have nothing to do with the moon. They convey long-distance messages to other wolves, who may be able to hear them from up to 10 miles away. Howling can help wolves assemble their pack, locate missing pack members, or defend territory, among other purposes.

20/11/2021

Adult gray wolves can survive on their own, and may need to for a while after leaving their birth packs. Wolves are highly social, however, and often mate for life once they do find a partner. This marks the beginning of a new wolf pack, or nuclear family, the basic social unit for wolves.

Both gray and red wolves breed once per year in late winter or early spring, and both have a gestation period of about 63 days. They generally have four to six pups in a litter, which are born blind, deaf, and heavily dependent on their mother. Wolf pups are cared for by all members of the pack, though, including their parents and older siblings. They develop quickly, exploring outside the den after three weeks and growing to nearly adult size within six months. Wolves reach maturity at 10 months, but may stay with their parents for a few years before moving out.

20/11/2021

Gray wolves usually live in packs of six to 10 individuals, led by a dominant breeding pair. You may have heard someone refer to these pack leaders as "alpha wolves," or males and females who supposedly gain dominance by fighting within their packs, eventually becoming the group's leaders and exclusive breeders. This view is widespread — and misleading.7

20/11/2021

The now-extinct dire wolf was common across North America until about 13,000 years ago, when much of the continent’s megafauna vanished amid natural climate changes. Dire wolves were comparable in size to today’s largest gray wolves, but they had bone-crushing jaws and may have focused on big prey like horses, bison, ground sloths, and mastodons.

20/11/2021

Even with this diversity, and the relative abundance of gray wolves globally, Earth now has far fewer wolves — and fewer kinds — than it once did.

The fossil record has revealed an array of interesting wolf and wolf-like species, for example, including the famous dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) as well as the hypercarnivorous Xenocyons, or “strange dogs,” which may be ancestors of modern African wild dogs and dholes.

20/11/2021

The word “wolf” usually refers to the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the most widespread and familiar wolf species still in existence. Gray wolves are widely thought to have evolved from the smaller Mosbach wolf, a now-extinct canid that lived in Eurasia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene.3

Thanks to adventurous, adaptable ancestors, gray wolves have thrived for hundreds of thousands of years across huge swaths of both Eurasia and North America, where they’ve diverged into a wide variety of subspecies.

20/11/2021

Wolves and humans have a complicated relationship. We often vilify the “Big Bad Wolf” in fiction and real life, but we're also consistently fascinated by these smart, social mammals, and we haven't always clashed. Our ancestors even formed an alliance with wild wolves sometime in the late Pleistocene Epoch, eventually giving us the unparalleled friends we now know as dogs.

18/11/2021

18/11/2021

18/11/2021