Home » Plants & Animals » Exotic Wildlife » Wolves the Canine Hunters

Wolves the Canine Hunters

© Jeremiah James Baldwin

Wolves Extending vastly in color from a pure white, to jet-black, wolves (Canis lupus) are pack hunters of the dog family (Canidae). Like a great many animals, the vast majority of people fear wolves because that which they may see in movies, or possibly just the general appearance of one. The fact is that wolves are probably even more afraid of you than you are of them. Wolf attacks are not completely unspoken of though, they will aggressively attack whatever their pray may be, in harsh conditions where there has been a shortage of food or sources of sustenance.

When it comes to the interaction between wolves and humans, the fact is that humans are more hazardous to them, then they are to us. Technically most wolves are considered endangered species in most states, with the exception of Alaska amongst a few others. Wolves are may in a way, be considered a threat to humans such as farmers or cattlemen not so much for the possibility that they endanger their lives, scarcely, but more they endanger their cattle. Wolves have built themselves a reputation to farmers and cattlemen as being a nuisance and a problem in killing their cattle.

Even thought wolves are a small animal, however large for being a canine, they are still completely capable of destroying the large and more powerful animals such as elk, deer, cattle, and caribou due to the fact that they hunt in what we call packs. A wolf pack is a group of wolves comprised of anywhere from 5 or 6 to groups in the 20's or 30's. Which obviously indicates that they travel in a vast variety of numbers. When this large pack of wolves, each of which contain a leader or commander, join together for an attack. They communicate to each other through the howling that many people have heard. Their howling may grow awfully loud and can be heard from miles away in most cases. The howling also serves as a warning tool to keep the foreign wolves, or, those who are not of that pack, away and out of the territory of their meal.

Intelligently they move from the downwind position of their prey and edge closer and closer towards the animal in the direction of the wind. The previously mentioned leader may be identified by it's noble characteristics. The leader will often stand slightly separated from the pack with his tail and ears erect, and raised head.