Wolf Song of Alaska published this list of factoids on their website.
- The wolf (Canis lupus ) Order: Carnivore, Family: Canidae
- The wolf is the largest in the wild canine family
- The coyote evolved separately from the wolf over 500,000 years ago
- The wolf has 42 teeth
- The wolf has rounded ears
- The wolf has a broad heavy muzzle
- The wolf has extremely powerful jaws capable of generating 1,500 psi pressure
- The wolf has one of the widest ranges of size, shape and color of any mammal in North America
- The wolf lives in a pack, family oriented social structure
- Mating season for the wolf occurs in February and March.
- The gestation period for the wolf is 63 days
- Wolf pups are born in April and May
- The average litter size for the wolf is 4 to 7 pups
- Litter size for the wolf depends on nutrition factors as well as fitness of the female
- Mortality rates for wolf pups can be as high as 50%
- Wolves have a vast communication repertoire including scent marks, vocalizations, visual displays, facial and body postures and rituals
- Wolves communicate with each other more by harmony and integration rather than by aggression and submission
- Wolves are territorial and defend their territory through vocalizations and scent marking
- If necessary, wolves will attack other wolf intruders to protect their territory
- There are two species of the wolf in North America, the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus ) and the Red Wolf (Canis rufus )
- In North America there are 10 recognized sub-species of the wolf
- The main threat to wolf populations is loss of habitat
- Predation is not violence, it is the act of obtaining food for survival
- The wolf is an ultimate predator at the top of the food chain
- The wolf is designed for running, catching and killing large animals
- 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
- In chases, the wolf can achieve estimated speeds of between 28 and 40 miles per hour for up to 20 minutes
- Radio tracking wolves has been used in wildlife research since 1963
- Wolves are vulnerable to skull injury from kicking prey
- The canine teeth “interlock” so the wolf can grip and hang on to struggling prey
- The back teeth, or carnassial molars, are designed to crush bones and shear meat
- The wolf uses facial display in ritual aggression, dominance, submission or fear
- The wolf has 2 types of hair, “Guards and “Undercoat”
- The hair of the wolf is shed in the spring and summer and sheds out in sheets unlike most dogs
- The color of a wolf’s pelt can be anywhere from white to black
- The wolf uses its hair to communicate anger, dominance and aggression
- The wolf’s sense of smell is more than 100 times greater than a human
- A wolf ’scent rolls’ to promote interaction with other pack members
- Dominance in a wolf pack is not necessarily established by brawn or direct attack
- A wolf ’scent marks’ its home range. This serves as messages, and provides warnings
- The hierarchy in a wolf pack neutralizes aggression, reduces conflict and promotes social order
- There are two hierarchies in a wolf pack, one for females and one for males
- Change of rank in a wolf pack is more frequent in lower rank positions
- Wolf pups, while low in hierarchy, have many privileges and social freedom
- ‘Ethology’ is the study of animal behavior as a scientific counterpart to human psychology
- The “Alpha” wolf is the highest ranking individual within the dominance hierarchy
- The “beta” wolf is the second ranking individual within the dominance hierarchy
- The “omega” wolf is the lowest ranking individual within the dominance hierarchy
- In the winter, the wolf’s tail helps keep the face warm
- Wolves breed only once a year; most dogs breed twice
- In addition to the wolf (Canis lupus ), the genus Canis also contains the domestic dog, the coyote, the golden jackal, the black backed jackal, the side-striped jackal and the dingo
- Three (3) geographic races of the red wolf have been recognized; the Florida Red Wolf, The Mississippi Red Wolf and the Texas Red Wolf
- Wolves are often confused with Indian dogs, huskies, malemutes and German Shepherd Dogs
- Arctic tundra, taiga, plains or steppes, savannahs, hardwood, softwood and mixed forest were all originally inhabited by the wolf
- Adult male wolves average ninety-five to one hundred pounds and females about fifteen pounds less
- Wolves howl to greet one another, to indicate their location, to define their territorial boundaries, and to call the pack together
- Wolves can trot at five to ten miles per hour almost indefinitely
- A wolf may spend as much as a third of its time on the move
- The wolf is generally a docile animal with a strong aversion to fighting
- Submissive behavior plays a big role in maintaining peace within the pack
- A wolf’s front feet are larger than their back feet
- Packs hunt in territories of up to 600 square miles
- A pack’s home range will sometimes overlap the territory of another pack
- In addition to howling, wolves bark, yap, whine, and growl
- Litters of up to 14 pups are born in April through June
- Pups emerge from the den at about one month of age
- 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 are considered to be competitors with people for game animals such as moose and caribou
- Although wolves are feared throughout much of the world, documented attacks on people are extremely rare
- Attempts to keep wolves as pets are not usually successful
- Wolves use direct scenting, chance encounter, and tracking to locate prey
- In scenting an animal, wolves must usually be downwind of the prey
- Wolves are active at all times of the day in winter
- Where waterways are plentiful, wolves often travel on the windswept and hardpacked ice in winter
- 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
- Most packs contain less than eight members
- Wolves bear an average of six young per litter
- Wolves become sexually mature at approximately twenty-two months
- Strong bonds are needed to hold a pack together; if there were no bonds, each wolf would go its separate way
- Most packs include a pair of breeding adults, pups, and extra adults that may also breed
- Ambushing is used by both single wolves and by packs
- 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
- The range of the red wolf once extended from eastern Texas to Georgia and Florida and northward through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Illinois
- The basic unit of wolf society is the pack
- The wolf’s front teeth are sharp and pointed and adapted to puncturing, slashing, and clinging
- The wolf’s pointed premolars and molars are useful for tearing and shearing once the prey has been killed
- The wolf’s massive rear molars aid in cracking and crushing bones
- The wolf does little chewing
- A wolf can consume almost twenty pounds of prey at a feeding
- Wolves can maintain a chase for at least twenty minutes
- The wolf feeds almost exclusively on flesh, bones, and other animal matter
- Lone wolves have no social territory and rarely scent-mark or howl
- The range size for a given pack of wolves depends on many environmental factors, particularly prey density
- It is common for wolves to be moving eight to ten hours in a day
- A pack may cover distances from 30-125 miles in a day
- Wolves possess upwards of two hundred million olfactory cells
- A wolf’s tail hangs while the tail of the dog tends to be held high and is often curly


