| In these popular children’s tales the wolf is made out to be a marauder and
a killer of livestock and people.
There is some basis for The Boy Who
Cried Wolf, for wolves have killed cattle and sheep. But what of Little Red Riding Hood? There are no records of wolves killing humans in Canada or the United
States.
Yet, when wolves were spotted near
rural communities, fear used to grip the populace. Over time this has become less prevalent.
Today, many people know that scientists studying wolves have lived very close to dens
where there were pups, without being attacked. They have even taken pups from a den without
being molested. The parents have usually run away, returning later only to take
their
young to another den or to a rendezvous site ( a place where the pack meets).
In areas where wolves are hunted
or trapped they fear people and are very wary. However, in remote places, such as in the
high Canadian Arctic, they show little fear and will often allow people to live near them.
Two
hundred years ago wolves (Canis Lupus), also known as gray wolves, were more widely
distributed that any other mammal of historic times. They lived in large areas of North
America, Europe, and Asia; the only places the could not be occupy were deserts, tropical
rain forests, and peaks of the highest mountain ranges.
Wolves still live in large areas of the
northern hemisphere; however, their primitive range has been greatly reduced due to
changes in landscape and people’s efforts to exterminate them.
In North America, wolves have
been exterminated in the Atlantic provinces, Mexico, the United States (except Minnesota,
Alaska, and some of the western states), and the heavily populated areas of southern
Canada. They are still common in lightly settled portions of Canada from Labrador to
British Columbia and in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
The red wolf (C. rufus) was once common
in the southeastern United States. It has been eliminated in the wild.
"Oh,
they look just like dogs" is an appropriate comment often heard near wolves'
pens in a zoo, for dogs are descendants of wolves.
It is virtually impossible to describe
the typical appearance of wolves. Wolves of many large arctic islands and Greenland usually
appear snow-white from a distance, but closer up often reveal gray, black, or reddish
shades. Wolves of northern North America and Eurasia vary in color. A single pack
may
contain animals that are black, shades of gray-brown, and white. Wolves in the
heavily
forested areas of northern North America are more uniform in color. They are often a
grizzled gray-brown like some German shepherd dogs.
Wolves in the Arctic have
extremely
dense undercoat, which insulates them against rigorous winters. Another adaptation to
environment is their habit of hunting in packs, or groups, which enables them to kill
large animals - deer, elk, moose, caribou, bison, and musk ox.
The
wolves’ habit of hunting in packs has resulted in the development of complex
patterns of social behavior. Wolves are gregarious: they not only hunt in packs or groups
but live most of their lives with other wolves. Studies show that a family made up of
male, female and pups is the basic pack unit. Other adults are pups of previous years or,
more rarely, adults from other packs.
Studies also show a highly organized social
structure centering on a dominant male and dominant female. A dominant wolf holds its tail
high, stands stiff-legged, and bristles its mane. In its presence, a subservient animal
cowers on the ground with its ears back or stands with its tail between its legs,
maintaining a slinking posture. The pack bond is strongest during winter, when the wolves
travel and hunt together. In summer, when the pups are young, the adults seldom go on long
forays. They may hunt together occasionally after meeting at the den or home site where
the pups are being cared for.
Wolves are territorial. Each pack
occupies an area that it will defend against intruders. Sizes of territories vary greatly
and are dependent on the kind and abundance of prey available.
The howling of a wolf pack is
one of the most awe-inspiring wilderness sounds. It is a form of communication
among wolf
packs.
Wolves often howl spontaneously at a
rendezvous site. This howling may form a "song-fest", for the wolves
apparently enjoy it. Howling by a pack may also be a way of warning other packs to keep
away from occupied territory and may serve to separate packs.
Wolves’
chief prey are large mammals such as deer, moose, caribou,
elk, bison, and musk ox. Wolves also eat a variety of smaller mammals and birds, but these
rarely make up more than a small part of their diet.
Wolves work hard for their food. They
have to. Studies show that they kill only about one large mammal for every 10 chased. In
winter, they usually kill old or young animals when these are available, but when prey
numbers decline they prey on all age groups, and it may take the entire pack to bring an
animal down. In summer, much of the wolves’ diet comprises young animals born that
year, because they are the easiest to catch.
Wolves prey on big game animals
and help to control their populations. Where wolves are absent ( for example, Anticosti
Island, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), white tail deer have overpopulated their ranges
and damaged forests. Food shortages and mass starvation of deer during the winter
sometimes follow.
People
have long practiced population control and extermination
of wolves. At times, governments
have paid a sum of money, called a bounty, for each animal killed. Wolves have already
been exterminated in many places. However, there may be less danger of such excesses in
the future, as wolf control is increasingly based on biology rather than emotion. There is
now a greater awareness among people (hunters and others) that the killing by wolves of
deer and other prey species, which we may want for ourselves, is not a sufficient reason
for the extermination of wolves. Sometimes populations of game animals are critically low,
so on biological grounds wolf control could be justified; however, control programs are
always opposed by ever-increasing urban populations.
In the wilderness scheme of things
wolves play an important role. And from a human point of view, the great interest and value
of having this intelligent animal as part of our wilderness heritage should be sufficiently
justified for allowing it to survive in a wide variety of wilderness and semi-wilderness
areas of Canada.
|