What you DO NOT know about Wolves

Wolves are probably the most misunderstood of all animals, thanks to fables & fairytales like Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood etc.. and a number of movies of couse.

Wolves have been perceived as vicious, blood-thirsty, ruinous monsters by human, and kids are brought up labelling them as "the big BAD wolf". These stereotypes ingenerate human-fears towards these beautiful creatures.

Picture from http://www.scottianbarry.com/

The truth is, healthy wolves DO NOT attack human. They prey mainly on deer, moose (sick ones usually, cos they are no match for a normal healthy moose), caribou, elk, bison. No doubt they are ruinous to farmers' livestocks, cos it's just common sense living things will prefer the easy way out. Though irritating to farmers, they still do not deserve the false labellings given to them centuries ago.

A lone wolf is no match for many other animals but in a pack, wolves are one of the most efficient hunters in the animal kingdom. This is mainly due to their capability to live together cooperatively in a pack and communicate effectively with eath other. This allows them to hunt larger preys with minimal effort. Wolves can also sense each other, as well as their prey by their acute sense of smell from as far as 3km. I was amazed by how organised their hunting processes were when I came across a documentary on TV many years ago. They do not travel close together, but rather, will encircle the targetted prey slowly, and quietly. The alpha male of the pack will make the 1st attack and clamps its jaws on the prey's neck, followed by the rest of the pack attacking from all directions.

Wolves avoid pack fighting by 'observing the nature rules strictly'. One form of communication is through scent-marking. Wolves mark their territory with urine and faeces. When 'foreign' pack arrives at a place and smell this, they'll not intrude and will move away to another place to settle down and hunt.

Another interesting fact about wolves is their vocal expressions. Wolves do not howl at the moon but they do howl more frequently after dark because that's when they are most active. They howl to make their prescence more obvious to foreign packs when they sense intruders, they do bark at intruders within short distance to chase them away. Wolves also howl to gather pack members, or to get everyone excited for hunting. Sometimes, these vocal creatures howl for fun. Adults yelp/"squeak" to gather pups, and mothers whimper to calm down pups.

There's a nature reserve somewhere (I couldn't remember) where tourists frequent to 'communicate' with the wolves. The tourists will start howling as a group and wait for the resident pack of wolves to howl back! How interesting!

Do you know that it is unusual for the alpha male to have 2 mating partners?

Cos they usually stick to just 1! In a pack, only the alpha male and female are allowed to breed. When the pups are born, the males will be out to hunt for food. When they come back from hunt, the pups will lick the adults' muzzles, and the adults will regurgitate to feed them. If the hunt wans't successful and pups are licking their muzzles, the adults will often go out and try to hunt again. The other females of the pack will play their roles as 'aunties' to help the mother take care of her young.

Photo from http://www.thewe.cc/

It may sound really amusing, wolves LOVES to play! Adult wolves will stage mock fights, play chase, and leap on each other. Ambushing of unwary pack members is their all time favorite!!

Picture from lowbagger.org/wolfprscam.html

I have came across a real life story where a pack of wolves decide to "adopt" 2 infant victims of a plane crash. The 2 girls never learnt how to walk like human but on fours instead. They were discoverd about a decade later and in the process of 'converting' them back to human, one of the girls died because she couldn't adapt well.

Ok it's time to draw a conclusion, wolves, if you know more about them, you'll love them! They aren't even close to our childhood perception of the "BIG BAD WOLF"!

P.S There's really a lot more I wanna type actually, but it'll bore most of you and tire me out. So I'll break them up into small detailed sections next time!!