My Good Dog Blog

Wolves are legendary because of their spine-tingling howl, which they use to communicate. A lone wolf howls to attract the attention of his pack, while communal howls may send territorial messages from one pack to another. Some howls are confrontational. Much like barking domestic dogs, wolves may simply begin howling because a nearby wolf has already begun.

Wolves are the largest members of the dog family. Adaptable gray wolves are by far the most common and were once found all over the Northern Hemisphere. But wolves and humans have a long adversarial history. Though they almost never attack humans, wolves are considered one of the animal world’s most fearsome natural villains. They do attack domestic animals, and countless wolves have been shot, trapped, and poisoned because of this tendency.

In the lower 48 states, gray wolves were hunted to near extinction, though some populations survived and others have since been reintroduced. Few gray wolves survive in Europe, though many live in Alaska, Canada, and Asia.

Red wolves live in the southeastern United States, where they are endangered. These animals actually became extinct in the wild in 1980. Scientists established a breeding program with a small number of captive red wolves and have reintroduced the animal to North Carolina. Today, perhaps 100 red wolves survive in the wild.

The maned wolf, a distant relative of the more familiar gray and red wolves, lives in South America. Physically, this animal resembles a large, red fox more than its wolf relatives.

Wolves live and hunt in packs of around six to ten animals. They are known to roam large distances, perhaps 12 miles (20 kilometers) in a single day. These social animals cooperate on their preferred prey—large animals such as deer, elk, and moose. When they are successful, wolves do not eat in moderation. A single animal can consume 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of meat at a sitting. Wolves also eat smaller mammals, birds, fish, lizards, snakes, and fruit.

Wolfpacks are established according to a strict hierarchy, with a dominant male at the top and his mate not far behind. Usually this male and female are the only animals of the pack to breed. All of a pack’s adults help to care for young pups by bringing them food and watching them while others hunt.

Wolves are wild animals, meant to live out their lives in freedom. When human beings interfere in the lives of wild animals, it becomes their responsibility to provide what the animals cannot provide for themselves – a healthy environment in which to live.

We must also reach a balance with those who want to see the wolf controlled, thier concerns must not be dismissed, they must become part of the conservation debate

For some wolves live in the imagination as shadows of evil, fueled by fallacy and fiction. Will they forever remain a thing of darkness or will the wolf emerge in the light of understanding?

Is the cry of the wolf a mournful farewell? or does it announce his return. Will we grant him a place to live? and in turn give ourselves something more valuable? We all must work together to ensure that the songs of the wolves will always be heard in all the wild places of our earth.
The wolf has been part of the natural balance for thousands of years, in less than 100 years man through ignorance and misinformation has almost made wolves disappear forever.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 7:01 am and is filed under natural balance dog food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.