Power Of Scent

The wolves locate their prey through their power of scent, a chance encounter, and tracking skills. Wolves smell the scent of their prey through the blowing wind. When a breeze carrying the prey’s scent is located, the wolves stand alert and point their eyes, ears, and nose towards their target’s direction. They often wag their tails and stand nose-to-nose when they locate their prey.

A Pack

Wolves are a highly social animal. They are never seen alone and always form a pack and work. Their usual social unit consists of a mated pair, accompanied by the pair’s adult offspring. The average pack consists of a family of 5 to some 11 animals or sometimes two or three such families. The exceptionally large packs consisting of up to 42 wolves being ever known.

Wolf Pups

Wolves have a gestation period of around 65 days. Surprisingly, the wolf pups are born both deaf and blind. They weigh only one pound in weight. As they grow their cognitive cycle completes and the eyesight and hearing buds develop.

Strong Jaws

Jaws of a wolf are immensely strong and powerful. They have a crushing pressure of nearly 1,500 pounds per square inch when compared with around 750 for a large dog. The jaws themselves are massive comprising of nearly 42 teeth which are specialized for stabbing, shearing, and crunching bones. A wolf bite can undoubtedly cause severe injury.

Alpha Reproduction

Though all the females in a pack are able to have pups and reproduce, yet, only a few will actually mate and bear pups. Generally, only the alpha female and the alpha male will mate, which is believed to produce the strongest cubs and it also helps limit the number of cubs the pack must care for. The other females, however, will help in raising and “babysitting” the produced cubs.

Hierarchical Fear

The wolf pack is extremely particular about their ranking in the hierarchy. Lower-ranking males do not mate often and thus suffer from a condition of stress termed as “psychological castration.” Lower-ranking females are so afraid of the alpha female that they do not even go into near her. The fear of alpha male and alpha female shapes the entire pack.