Wolf Factoids

• Adult male wolves average ninety-five to one hundred pounds and females about fifteen pounds less
• The wolf has 42 teeth. Wolves have extremely powerful jaws capable of generating 1,500 psi pressure.
• The wolf’s sense of smell is more than 100 times greater than a human. Wolves possess upwards of two hundred million olfactory cells.
• In the winter, the wolf’s tail helps keep the face warm. A wolf’s tail hangs while the tail of the dog tends to be held high and is often curly.
• The wolf is generally a docile animal with a strong aversion to fighting.
• Wolves communicate with each other more by harmony and integration rather than by aggression and submission.
• Wolves have a vast communication repertoire including scent marks, vocalizations, visual displays, facial and body postures, and rituals. They are territorial and defend their territory through vocalizations and scent marking. The wolf also uses a facial display in ritual aggression, dominance, submission or fear.

• Wolves howl to greet one another, to indicate their location, to define their territorial boundaries, and to call the pack together. In addition to howling, wolves bark, yap, whine, and growl.
• The wolf is opportunistic and will attempt to catch the easiest and most vulnerable animal. The wolf can kill healthy animals but naturally seeks out the sick, the weak, crippled, old and young animals
• The wolf primarily travels at a 5 mile per hour trot. Wolves can trot at five to ten miles per hour almost indefinitely
• In chases, the wolf can achieve estimated speeds of between 28 and 40 miles per hour for up to 20 minutes.
• Wolves actually have a low hunting success rate. To catch enough food, wolves must hunt often and test many animals before finding one that they can catch and kill.
• A wolf can consume almost twenty pounds of prey at a feeding.
• Most packs contain less than eight members.
• Mating season for the wolf occurs in February and March and pups are born in April and May. The gestation period for the wolf is 63 days and the average litter size is 4 to 7 pups.
• Wolf pups, while low in hierarchy, have many privileges and social freedom. All members of a wolf pack take part in caring for the young. When pack members return from the hunt and they are nipped on the snout by the pups, the hunters regurgitate undigested meat for them.
• Wolves at one time had an extensive range, occurring throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Japan. The only substantial population of wolves left at present in the contiguous 48 states inhabits northern Minnesota.
  

-From www.wolfsongalaska.org

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