Being the ancestors of all breeds of domestic dogs, wolves are one of the best pack hunters in the world. They are the largest members of the Canidae family which also includes coyotes, fox, domestic dogs, dingoes and several kind of jackals.
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The two most famous species of wolves are the red wolves and the grey wolves. They are present in almost all the parts of the world except true desert. In fact they are the most widely spread mammals except humans.
The most famous type is the grey wolf. Being the ancestors of domestic dogs, they widely resembles with the german shephard.
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The famous yellow stone national park from 2012 movie is one of the habitat of wolves.
Wolves live in a pack of up to 20. They communicate through growl, howl, barking and scent marking.
But they are legendary because of their howling. A lone wolf howls to communicate with his pack, while a group may howl in order to answer the rival pack.
While a single howl of wolf goes up to 5 secs, the howling of a group may last much longer. Some howls are confrontational to the other wolf pack.
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The pack of wolf contains male and female hierarchy. The alpha male is dominant over the entire pack. Both males and females have alpha leaders. Only the alpha male and female breed while all the others in the pack help pups to grow.
Wolves are pregnant for nearly 2 months and give birth to 4-6 pups at a time. They give birth to pups at their den. The pups can't see or hear at the time of birth and weighs almost 1 pound.
Adult wolves provide for pups by swallowing meat. They spew the meat when they return to give a good meal to their pups. When pups are young, the pack usually change den after every few months to keep the new born safe from predators, until the fall when they stop living at the den.
When the pups reach three, they have option to either join the pack or make a new pack in the nearby region if prey and other resources are plenty in the area.
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Wolves vary on size depending on where they live but average size is 3-5 feet long with about 2 feet long tails. They can run up to 65km/hr for a few minutes.
Females usually weighs 70 pounds while males usually weigh 100 pounds. The average life span of wolves is 13-15 years.
Wolves can eat up to 20 pounds of meat in a single meal. Active mostly at night, wolves prey at small animals and birds or weak members of big animal groups like deer. Although dogs are of same species and related in a lot of ways, they also consider them a good meal.
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Cannibalism is common among wolves as they are opportunistic carnivores. They will not miss a chance of meal. A dead wolf is a good prey for other wolves.
In conflicts among rival packs, alpha male usually dies which can be eaten by their offspring.
Apart from dogs and wolves themselves, these animals also attack humans for meat. There are a number of human deaths by wolves till now all over the world. Whether they are hunting a deer or moose, they can eat it when it is still alive.
The Vikings wore wolf skins and drank their blood to take on their spirit in the battle.
The earliest drawing of wolves are in Europe and date from 20,000 B.C.
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