Facts you should know if you are a wolf lover
Since ancient times, wolves have held a position of mystery in the human world. Number of myths and legends revolving around these animals have been circulating since ages, and in some way or other have spiked our curiosity in wanting to know them better.
1. We all need our mommy.
Newborn pups are just too inexperienced to do anything by themselves; this includes urination. They require stimulation from their mothers in order to eliminate waste from their bodies. The mother stimulates the pup by licking its belly thereby, helping it to pee and poop.
2. Here a sniff, there a sniff; everywhere a sniff.
Wolves are very much dependent on scents for survival. It is only right that their sense of smell should be highly developed. Through smell, wolves can detect prey, their pack and also their rivals and other enemies. Even though the atmospheric conditions affect their ability to smell, they can detect scents almost 3 km away under favorable conditions.
3. They do not kid when they say they will break your bones!
Wolves have immensely powerful jaws, jaws that can crush bones. A large wolf has the crush power of almost 1500 pounds per square inch. Their jaws open wider than those of dogs, and have almost 42 teeth for stabbing, shearing and crushing bones.
4. Not everyone can do it.
Survival of the fittest, more like the best, has always been a rule of nature. And wolves play by this rule very religiously. To ensure that their pups are the strongest and can survive the odds, only Alpha male and female mate. The other females in the pack are so afraid of the Alpha female that they do not even go in heat, and are left to take care of the litter.
5. A Freudian nightmare.
Referring back to the previous point, only Alpha male and female mate. Males of lower ranks cannot mate with the Alpha female and other females are unavailable. This causes distress in the males and leads to a condition called “Psychological Castration”.
6. What is mine is yours; but only if I have not peed on it.
Wolves are territorial, no doubt about it, but they have something called as spatial-temporal territories. Basically, a wolf pack can move into the territory of another pack depending on how long ago they had marked the territory as theirs.
7. Emotional range of a spoon? Well, not so much.
Wolves are widely seen as fierce predators; hence, it is difficult for people to see them as emotional creatures. Wolves do have emotional lives and more often than not, they use facial expressions to convey these emotions. They also use facial expressions to communicate with the pack and maintain pack unity.
8. Because there are all types of friends.
In the animal world, symbiotic relationships are very common. Wolves and ravens share one such relationship, where ravens follow wolves to grab the leftovers. But it is not only limited to that, they often tease the wolves by diving at them and then speeding away or pecking theirs to try to get them to chase after them.
9. The boy who howled wolf, and then, the wolf replied.
Biologists have found that if you howl like a wolf, and if the nearby wolves are in the mood, they would respond to your howls. This does not mean that you are communicating with them though. Because come on, you don’t know wolf-talk just because you are no Mowgli.
