Why wolf howl

These dens may be in rock crevices, hollow logs or overturned stumps, but most often are burrows dug by the parents. The gray wolf is one of the most social carnivores.

A wolf pack typically has five to eight individuals, but as many as 36 have been reported in one pack. These family groups typically consist of an adult pair, called the alpha, and their offspring.

A young wolf may venture out on its own, exploring the fringes of its territory before deciding whether to leave its parental pack behind. In addition to howling, barking and growling, gray wolves use scent marking to maintain pack territories. Body language is also an important communication tool. Dominant wolves may display raised hackles the hair on the back of the neck , bared teeth, wrinkled foreheads and erect, forward-pointing ears.

Conversely, a less dominant animal may lower its tail and body position, expose its throat, peel back its lips and fold back its ears. Gray wolves once had one of the largest natural ranges of any terrestrial mammal in the Northern Hemisphere, but expansion into the western U.

Cattle ranches believed wolves were a threat to their livelihood, and a history of hunting and poisoning devastated wolf populations, bringing them to the brink of extinction. In , the Endangered Species Act helped reestablish wolf populations. A combination of legal protection, human migration to more urban areas and land-use changes has helped stabilize them since, and in , they were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains. Hunting in packs allows gray wolves to take down prey larger than themselves, including caribou, moose, deer and bison.

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