The Wolf Pack

A usual pack consists of a pair of breeding wolves which are the alpha pair, their current offspring, and a few yearlings or other young wolves. There may also be a few adult subordinate wolves in the pack, which could be brothers or sisters of the alphas. The alpha pair may not necessarily be the largest wolves in the pack. The term "alpha" applies to dominant individuals. Their is sometimes the beta who is second from the alpha pair. When the alphas cannot be there for the pack, the beta takes charge. If one of the alpha pair dies or becomes weak, the beta will take its place. At the end of the pack from the alpha pair is the omega wolf, or "scapegoat". This is the lowest individual and is harassed by the other wolves to relieve stress.

Most wolf packs have four to seven individuals. The largest pack that was documented appears to be one in Alaska which was composed of thirty-six members. In 1942, John Stanwell-Fletcher reported a pack of thirty-one wolves in northern British Columbia. There are undocumented reports of over fifty wolves in a pack in Alaska in the 1940s and 50s. These huge packs haven't been reported for the red wolf or the Abyssinian wolf. Large packs provide hunting efficiency when game is scarce. Some studies have found that larger packs tend to choose larger pray, such as moose.

According to Steven B. Young, "Wolves are considered by many to have the most complex social behavior of any nonprimate animal." The social rank of the individual wolves in the pack is enforced by a set of body positions and movements, intimidation, and harassment.

The dominant posture of the wolf includes walking with a high head, partly erect tail, and eyes straight toward other wolves. They may show their hackles raised, may growl, and may side-swipe or body-slam into subordinates, sometime pinning them to the ground. They may show bared teeth, upright ears, or a wrinkled forehead and my seize the muzzle of subordinates, or nip and bite them. Dominant animals tend to eat first, the first to attack in aggressive encounters with other packs, and tend to have breeding rights lower-ranked individuals don't have. They usually urinate in a standing position. Dominate wolves also use the "riding up" posture in which the wolf places its forelegs across the shoulders of a subordinate.

The subordinate posture of the wolf includes a lowered tail (extreme submission is curled under the body), ears folded back, peeled back lips, crouching or lowered body position, and urination in a squat position. They may lick the dominant wolf's muzzle or lie on their back exposing their belly. They may also bend its head back to expose the throat or whine or squeal in submission. They take timid small steps towards the superiors with one forepaw lifted. Rudolf Schenkel divided submission gestures into either active or passive submission. Active submission is a friendly display toward a dominant animal and passive submission is the response from a lower-ranked animal to the dominant one.

Lone wolves are often a subordinate wolf that left the pack because of physical and mental harassment, intimidation, hunger from inadequate food supplies, or a need to mate. Most wolves that left the pack did so before the age of two years. Deposed alpha wolves may also become lone wolves. Dada Gottelli and Claudio Sillero- Zubiri "never recorded any instance of a male leaving his natal pack to join a different one." A lone wolf may live on the edge of the pack or move away to join an existing pack or form a new one. A loner living on the edge of a pack may be chased off, killed, or accepted by the pack. When a pack member dies, a lone wolf sometimes takes it's place. Lone wolves cover more ground in search of food or a mate.