The grey wolf

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The grey wolf

• By Calum Davies 8R

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The grey wolf

• The grey wolf, also called the timber wolf,
  inhabits mountains, forests, taiga, plains, and
  tundra across northern North America, Europe, and
  Asia. One of at least 36 species belonging to the
  family Canidae, which includes the coyote,
  jackal, fox, and domestic dog, the wolf is
  characterized by powerful teeth, a bushy tail,
  and round pupils, and lives and hunts in packs.
  The family Canidae is believed to have originated
  in North America 55 million to 38 million years
  ago during the Eocene Epoch.

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Grey wolf facts 1

• Life span8-12 years
• Latin name canis lupus
• Description wolves range in colour from grizzled
  grey or black to all-white and red.
• Size 65-80 cms high (26-32 inches)
• Weight 55-155 pounds

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Grey wolf facts 2

• Population in earlier times there were thought
  to be 2 million grey wolves around the world. Now
  there are believed to be only
• 200 000.
• Habitat wolves can be found in forests, and on
  tundra, deserts, plains and mountains.
• Food wolves prey mostly on hoofed animals like
  elk or deer but will sometimes prey on rabbits
  and other small mammals.
• Behaviour wolves live in families called packs
  that are headed by the alpha female and alpha
  male. These are the main breeding pair. The rest
  of the pack are usually the offspring of the
  leading wolves. Wolves communicate through body
  postures, vocal, sent marking and facial
  expressions.
• Offspring wolves mate in January or February.
  Females give birth two months later to a litter
  of pups. An average litter is four to seven pups.

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Grey wolf subspecies

• The grey wolf is only second to humans in
  adapting to the terrain and habitat it lives in.
  The coyote is a scavenger out on the plain in
  Africa, and the Arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos)
  has adapted its fur colour to suit the snow. The
  grey wolf is the main animal, and the rest are
  subspecies, like the ones I just mentioned.

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Loss of habitat

• Grey wolves are losing their habitat to humans
  who are intruding and building on their
  territory, meaning that the wolves then have to
  expand their territory to compensate. This leads
  to fights with other packs over territory and
  food. Grey wolves are also starting to lose
  their food supply by more and more shootings of
  the food that they eat, such as elks, which leads
  them to leave and go else where or face death by
  starvation or being hunted illegally themselves.

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How grey wolves have died out

• The main ways the grey wolves have diminished
  are
• The illegal shooting of the wolves.
• Taking away the dens of wolves.
• Shooting all the food.

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Where grey wolves now live

• After the diminishment of wolves, they are now
  starting to come back thanks to the help of
  research and public education efforts. They now
  have thriving communities of wolves in Rome,
  Spain, France, Poland, Germany, the former Soviet
  Union, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

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How have grey wolves adapted

• The grey wolf has many special adaptations. Their
  coats are made up of woolly fur to provide
  insulation and long guard hairs to keep out
  moisture. The grey wolf's large paws have fleshy
  pads and claws for traction and can spread to
  provide better support in snow. Wolves have a
  sense of hearing twenty times sharper than a
  human's and have a sense of smell a hundred times
  keener. The wolf's jaws can deliver a crushing
  pressure of over 500 pounds per square inch!
  Wolves' vision is very motion sensitive. They
  have a reflective retina, called a tapetum that
  enhances their night vision. They can't see
  colour. Wolves have great stamina. They can cover
  a distance of more than eighteen miles at a quick
  trot. They have a top speed of about 40 miles per
  hour.

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The future of grey wolves

• The grey wolves are now being introduced back
  into the wild and are so being realised that they
  are not killers if they have enough food and
  there are enough warnings in place. We could also
  try moving some grey wolves back to isolation and
  monitor them from time to time with out
  disturbing them to see how the behave and how
  well they live on there own.