Behaving Wildly - Wolves

This week we are looking at wolves and how their behaviors differ from domesticated dogs!

Wolves: The wolf is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. The wolf is the largest wild member of the family Canidae (including the dingo, coyote, and dog). You can tell them apart from other canines by their less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. They also have quite a few behaviors that are different from other canine species. Let's see how wildly wolves behave!

Tail posture: Wolves have incredible communication skills, but it isn’t just their voices that lend a hand to that skill. Wolves have a lot of postures and behaviors that mean different things to us! We often think about tail wagging to mean happiness in canines, and while that can be the case, the tail wag of a wolf usually just means that it’s feeling SOMETHING intensely. So the faster the wag, the more the wolf is feeling. This is actually true of dogs too so just because a dog is wagging it’s tail, doesn’t mean it’s not nervous or upset! You probably know your dogs well enough to know when they’re happy or sorry that they ate garbage, though. They also hold their tails differently based on if they are behaving dominantly or submissively. So dominant wolves will hold their tails high while submissive wolves will lower their tails! 

Muzzle Licking and Teeth Bearing: While a smile from humans usually means they’re friendly, when a wolf bears its teeth, it can mean something else entirely! It could mean they are angry or just taking charge. Most of the time, the more submissive wolves will lick the dominant wolf's muzzle to show them they respect them! We may hate it when our dogs lick our mouths, but they just mean they care about and respect you. So it’s nice and not gross at all. Kinda.

Eye Contact: We see eye contact as a sign of respect, but direct eye contact with many animals means that you are being dominant or even aggressive. However, when it comes to our pets, dogs may seek eye contact with you when they are feeling vulnerable as a sign of trust. We've all had that awkward eye contact with our dogs while they go number two...right?

Cooperative Hunting: The wolf is most specialized of all of the canid species for cooperative game hunting. Some of their adaptations that help them with this include their long legs, improved sense of smell, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behaviour, including individual or group howling. Our domestic dogs might form packs, but the wolf truly is a master of cooperation, especially when hunting. It's a myth that there is an Alpha Male and a Beta Male. That's not true at all and was actually debunked by the same guy who thought it up! Wolves are FAMILY units who work cooperatively for survival. Sometimes there are even multiple generations of wolves all living together, each with a job to do around the den!

Howling: Sometimes domestic dogs howl, that's true! But barking is more common way for them to express themselves. Wolves don't really bark, but will growl, huff, and HOWL. Each wolf has a different howl and a pack can tell one another apart just by the sound of their howls. They howl to communicate with one another, sort of like a walky-talky but without batteries or thumbs.

While wolves and dogs are obviously very closely related, their behaviors just aren't quite the same! Next time you're at Oatland, take a look at our wolf pack and see if you can't notice the difference in their behaviors! And as always, see you on the trails!