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The Traveling Wolf

"The wolf is kept fed by his feet."
- an old Russian Proverb

Wolves are built for running. They have long legs and narrow chests for plunging through deep snow and have big paws that act as snowshoes. In the winter, the wolf travels where the going is easiest, following frozen lakes, moose trails, or a single file following each other through deep snows. The pace of a wolf in a slow trot is usually 4-6 mph. They are also have great endurance. A wolf in Scandinavia was found to have traveled 125 miles in a day and night, chased by dogs and a hunters. John Stanwell-Fletcher once tracked two wolves that traveled for 22 miles nonstop in sic feet of powder snow.

Wolves travel a least 20 miles or more each day in search of food. Great distances are traveled by wolves, primarily by lone wolves. Biologists believe that no other modern terrestrial mammal travels as far. "The farthest overall dispersal is...over 829 miles," according to Rick Bass in The Ninemile Wolves. This distance was traveled by a wolf in Canada. Other accounts of long distances traveled by wolves have been found. These distance go from 419 miles to 550 miles.

Play

Wolves love to play. They shoulder each other, bump body together, flop their tails over each other's backs, and leap up placing their forepaws around others' necks. Play develops strength and hunting skills, especially in pups. It also aids in pack communication and hierarchy.

Pups will play together, by themselves, with adults, and with a variety of toys; bones, feathers, plants, and anything else they can find. The gesture to play is well known to dog owners, which is dropping the front quarters into a crouch position, with a wagging tail.

Adults will stage mock fights, chase one another, and leap on each other. Ambushing unwary pack members is a favorite game.

Grooming

The Wolf's thick coats are for warmth in the northern portions of their range. This is why they spend part of their leisure time grooming. The grooming of other pack members helps reinforce the social bonds that keep the pack together. Wolves will lick each other's coats, nibbling gently with their teeth to remove foreign matter. Injured wolves are intensely groomed by other pack members, which provides physical and mental comfort.

Hunting

Almost 90% of the time, the pack does not catch the intended prey. Deer will scatter, a moose may run or fight to inflict wounds, musk ox form a circular wall protecting young with lowered horns and hooves. This causes a difficulty for making a kill. That's why wolves pick out the injured, young, old, and diseased of their prey because there is less risk of injury and there's more chances of getting food.

The pack will taunt their prey, feinting then retreating to study the prey's reactions. They have a verity of tactics, depending on the type of animal and terrain. The pack may trail their pray for hours or even days over long distances, waiting for the right moment and terrain. Decoys are sometimes sent upwind to make the prey flee into an ambush. The pack will surround herds and drive them into the open where a vulnerable individual can be picked off. Sometimes, if needed, the pack will run the prey to exhaustion.

The first bite is to the prey's head, ear, or nose. Other members will go after the legs, flanks, and hamstrings to bring it down. The prey may escape leaving a trail of blood which the pack follows. Major kills are often followed by fortunately found appetizers. These include ptarmigan, snakes, grubs, voles, berries, or road-kills. Despite the long-time belief for occasional killing of domestic animals, wolves seldom attack cattle sheep, but prefer wild game.

Food
Hoofed animals including deer, moose, elk, and caribou tend to be most of the wolf's diet. Wolves will eat grass as an intestinal scour or purgative. Their food sources change through the year with availability. In Jasper National Park, wolves will often switch from adult mule deer to their calves in the spring. Also some tundra wolves turn to mice and ground squirrels when the caribou migrate in the summer. Rodents comprised 26 percent of the wolf's diet in the summer. When wolf's hunt alone, beavers are an important alternate food in the summer. Wolves will sometimes eat fish too.

Wolves are not only hunters, but scavengers too. In a study thirty moose carcasses in Algonquin Park were found. Only four were killed by wolves. The remainder had died natural deaths and their carcasses were scavenged by wolves.

Wolves eat an average of five to twelve pounds of food per day, but may go for days without eating. They will stay at a large kill site for a few days, then rest for days after.

Ignorance of Wolf Hunters

by Wolves Den of Maine

Copyright � 1999-2001, by Alix.