Many people experience genuine horror in front of these dangerous predators. This is largely due to the stories that hunters tell. They often characterize wolves as intelligent and even treacherous animals. However, not everyone knows that a wolf in nature extremely rarely attacks a person. These ferocious predators prefer to stay away from people, they are used to living their own lives, the main meaning of which is hunting.
Wolves: types of wolves
It should be noted that the genus of wolves on Earth is one of the few. It consists of only seven types:
- Canis lupus (wolf);
- Canis aureus (jackal ordinary);
- Canis latrans (coyote);
- Canis rufus (ginger wolf);
- Canis adustus (striped jackal);
- Canis mesomelas (black jackal);
- Canis simensis (Ethiopian jackal).
The wolf family includes Arctic foxes, foxes, a maned wolf, and a raccoon dog.
Habitat
Scientists attribute the origin of the wolf to carnivorous predators who lived on our planet one hundred million years ago, and about twenty million years ago dogs came from wolves. As a separate species, Canis lupus formed in Eurasia a million years ago, and at the end of the Pleistocene, it became the most common predator.
Nowadays, the habitat of wolves is recorded in Europe, North America, Asia. They inhabit open and half-open territories. In the north, the coast of the predator is the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In Hindustan (in southern Asia) the wolf lives up to 16 degrees north latitude. Over the past two and a half centuries, the number of these formidable predators has significantly decreased. Protecting domestic animals, a person exterminates them and drives them out of inhabited areas.
Already today, in Japan, the British Isles, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, and in Central Europe, wolves have been completely destroyed. Species of wolves over the past decades in Europe continue to disappear rapidly.
The wolf is still quite common in the steppes and mountainous regions of Kazakhstan, in the tundra and forest-tundra. The characteristic of wolves, which is given in many special publications, suggests that in the range the wolf is quite variable - it has many subspecies, differs in size, color, and way of life in natural conditions.
Scientists-zoologists distinguish several dozen subspecies of the wolf. The largest individuals live in the tundra, the smallest in the southern regions. The mass of an adult animal can range from 18 to 80 kg, their body length can reach 160 cm, the tail length is about sixty centimeters.
Wolf color
It largely depends on the habitat. The characteristic of the wolf living in the Arctic suggests that white individuals are often found there. In addition, other colors are found in other regions - black and white wolf, gray and white, cinnamon, brown, sometimes completely black fur is found.
Predators in North America have three color phases. The first is a mixture of gray, black and a shade of cinnamon with brown. The second is black (a mixture of dark brown with black). The third phase is gray with brown.
Hair coat
Excellent fur coat have these wild animals. The wolf has thick fur (length up to eight centimeters). He has a thick undercoat. The outer layer is formed by long, stiff, with black ends, outer hairs that repel water, and the undercoat does not get wet at all.
Wolf teeth
Wolves possess powerful weapons. Species of wolves, regardless of their habitat, have 42 strong and sharp teeth. In front are 4 curved five-centimeter canines - two from below and two from above. The predator easily bites through them the densest skin of its prey. And carnivorous (molar) teeth an adult wolf is able to gnaw even the bone of a moose's thigh.
Limbs
Animals that are canine, including wolves, are finger-like. In other words, they walk with their fingers. Only when the predator lies down, he heels touches the ground. The forelimbs of the wolf are very powerful, due to this the load is evenly distributed and the animal does not fall into the loose snow.
Each forepaw of the wolf has five fingers, but only four work. The paws have well-developed bare crumbs, and the fingers are gathered in a dense and oval lump. They are completed by strong and slightly dulled due to contact with the ground claws. Their wolf uses when digging the ground.
Wolves move by jogging, jumping or galloping. While walking, their speed is about six and a half kilometers per hour. They jog at a speed of up to sixteen kilometers per hour. For a very long time, the wolf can run almost non-stop. There are cases when these dangerous predators covered a distance of one hundred kilometers in one night.
Sense of smell and hearing
The characteristic of the wolf suggests that hunting is not the ears or eyes, namely the nose helps the wolf to find prey first. They catch in the wind the smell of even a very small animal, which is located at a distance of two kilometers. A sharp sense of smell allows you to chase your victim.
True, predators are not deprived of subtle hearing. Hearing the noise, they begin to turn their ears and accurately determine where the sound comes from, often located a few kilometers away.
Wolf Pack
The wolf family in some cases totals up to fifteen individuals, but more often there are eight animals in it. A flock is a family group of animals of different ages. Usually it consists of parents, arrived (this year's brood) and outbreaks (animals that have not reached puberty). Sometimes it includes adult animals that do not participate in reproduction.
In years rich in food, up to 30 or more wolves can gather in schools. The offspring remains in the family for 10-14 months, and then leaves it. Thus a lone wolf appears. He sets off in search of a free territory, which he immediately marks, claiming his rights to it. As a rule, such an animal soon finds its mate and a new flock appears. Although there are cases when a lone wolf lives quite a long time outside the pack.
A wolf family is a self-regulating mechanism. In cases where the population density is quite low, then its size is small, the separation of growing offspring occurs much faster. When environmental conditions are more favorable, the population density increases, therefore, the size of the flock increases, however, to a certain limit. As a rule, its growth is due to non-regular lone wolves, which are assigned a subordinate position.
The pack is led by a pair of predators - a male wolf and his girlfriend, whom, by the way, he chooses for life. Thus, the pack has a core of wolves with high social status and their subordinates. The leaders of the pack are very strong in nature, which allows them to keep order in the family, to prevent skirmishes and fights, especially between young wolves.
Family hunting area
A flock survives due to the size of its hunting grounds, so predators protect them fiercely. The border of such territories can be from fifty to one and a half thousand square kilometers. Wolves mark their territory, and you will not envy a stranger who dares to violate its borders.
Sign language
As a rule, wolves express their feelings with body movements and facial expressions. Wolf tongue helps to unite the flock and act in an organized manner. For example, when the tail of an animal is raised high, and its tip is slightly bent, this means that the predator is confident. A friendly wolf keeps the tail down, but the tip is slightly raised. A predator, tail tail, or is afraid of something, or thus reports sympathy.
In addition, the position of the tail can tell about the status of the animal in the pack. The leader always lifts him high, and his subordinates keep the tail down. Wagging its tail, a formidable predator invites its relatives to the game.
Welcome ceremony
Members of the pack show respect and devotion to their leader in the welcoming ceremony. Tucking their ears, crawling, with densely smoothed wool, they carefully approach the leader and his companion, lick them and carefully bite their muzzles.
Wolf ration
The basis of the diet of wolves is large ungulates - red and reindeer, saigas, moose, goats and rams. In the absence of such food, the wolf preys on rodents, rabbits, in rare cases, eats carrion. In regions where there are no ungulates, wolves are not found or live in very small numbers. Predators are attracted by large concentrations of livestock. In the north, in areas with developed sheep and reindeer husbandry, the presence of wolves is a common occurrence.
In Russia, wolves are quite widespread. The types of wolves that inhabit our country are well known. There are only six of them:
- Central Russian Forest Wolf;
- grey;
- tundra;
- Siberian forest;
- Caucasian;
- Mongolian.
Gray wolf
This representative of the wolf is considered the most common in the world. Description of the gray wolf today can be found in all directories of zoologists. It stands out for its impressive size. The appearance of this predator is not without nobleness. Apparently, that's why he has repeatedly become the hero of writers writing about animals.
The gray wolf can be found in Europe, America and Asia. A downed, strong body with a wide massive chest, high muscular legs leave no doubt that this is a real predator. This wolf has a lobed, but at the same time elegant head with small ears and decorated with dark stripes that are located around almost white cheeks and very bright spots above the eyes. The tail is not long, it is located almost straight.
The fur is long (up to eight centimeters) and thick, with undercoat. Coat in animals living in the middle and southern regions is coarse. Wolves from the northern regions have a soft and fluffy fur coat.
Russian wolf
This is a special subspecies of the gray wolf that lives in the north of Russia. Russian Wolf is one of five subspecies that live on the territory of our country. Canis lupus communis (Russian wolf) - so this animal is called Western biologists. On average, a male weighs from 40 to 80 kilograms, a female from 30 to 55 kilograms.
Siberian wolf
This is no less large beast than the Russian wolf. Many scientists believe that today this species has been conditionally isolated, since the systematics of Siberian predators has not yet been completed. These animals have several colors. Light gray is more common than others. The ocher shades are barely noticeable or completely absent. The fur is not very tall, but rather thick and soft. Most often found in the Far East, Kamchatka (except for the tundra), in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia.
Steppe wolf
This animal is somewhat smaller than the representatives of the forest subspecies. It has coarser and rarer hair. On the back is a color with a noticeable predominance of gray-rusty, and often brown hair. At the same time, the sides remain light gray. Today, this wolf can be found in the steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Urals, and the Lower Volga. The species is poorly understood. A system of characteristic features has not yet been developed. The number of these animals is small, especially in the western areas of the range.
Caucasian wolf
This beast belongs to medium-sized predators. The Caucasian wolf has coarse and short outer hair; the undercoat is poorly developed. The color of this animal is much darker than that of the previously described species. This is due to the even distribution of the black outer hair over the skin.
In our country, it lives in areas of the Main Caucasian Range, including its wooded foothills.
Mongolian wolf
And this wolf is the smallest living on the territory of Russia. The weight of an adult animal is rarely more than forty kg. Its fur is dull, dirty gray, rough and hard. This species is distributed in the east and southwest of Transbaikalia, as well as in the Primorsky Territory.
Tundra wolf
Large and beautiful beast. You see his photo below. The body length of males often exceeds 150 cm. Predators have long, soft and thick fur. Color - light tones. In our country, this wolf settles in the forest-tundra and tundra zones of the European part of Kamchatka and Siberia.
Central Russian (Forest) Wolf
A powerful predator that lives in the forest-steppe and steppe zone of Russia often populates Western Siberia. In the northern regions, his visits to the forest-tundra are noted. Although it is generally accepted that the largest tundra wolf in Europe and Asia, the representative of this subspecies often exceeds its size.
An adult animal can have a body length exceeding 160 cm, and its height reaches a meter. Of course, such parameters are characteristic of the largest individuals. On average, an adult male weighs 45 kg, a re-weight (1 year and 8 months) - 35 kg, and a profit (8 months) - 25 kg. She-wolves are 20% lighter.
The predator has a classic, in gray tones with an admixture of ocher, color. The Central Russian wolf lives in the forests of Central Russia, often penetrates the west of Siberia. In the northern regions comes into the forest-tundra.
