Alaskan Wolves
Wolves love each other’s company; they are social animals, which live in packs or family groups. Each pack has the parent wolves, their pups, which were born within a year or the previous year and ccasionally, a wolf family will let a stray wolf join their pack. The leader of the pack makes this decision, which is one of the parents. The parents of the pack are called the alpha pair and if one dies, the other wolf will find another mate that’s not from its pack. A normal pack does not contain many wolves, on average there are seven wolves in a group. Sometimes packs are larger, a bigger group contains 20 or more wolves because one female may have 2 to 3 litters of pups.
Normally, male adult wolves weigh 85 – 115 pounds but they can weigh up to 145 pounds. Females however are 5 to 10 pounds lighter, rarely weighing over100 pounds; all wolves become adult size in about a year.
Wolves like to hunt big animals; they are carnivores and when they hunt in the north, caribou are their prey. In the southeast wolves hunt the Sitka black-tail deer and throughout the states they hunt moose. One wolf cannot bring down a large animal; the entire pack helps by working together. Large animals are not the only source of food for wolves; they supplement their diet with voles, lemmings, ground squirrels, snowshoe hares and other small mammals. They also eat carrion and whenever they are near a source of water, they will catch salmon. Food gives wolves energy; they need at least seven pounds of meat a day to stay strong.
When wolves are not hunting, they defend their territory from other wolves, which may try to take their home. The area which contains prey or food supplies changes, which means a pack will not stay within a territory for a long time. Many deer roam on the islands in Southeast Alaska, however a wolf’s territory is smaller there, but in Interior and Arctic Alaska, the quantity of prey is lower but the area has larger wolf territories. Wolves are not lazy, they can travel 20 miles in a day and sometimes even farther. Wolves may search and travel hundreds of mile from their home to find new territory to own.
February and March are the normal months that wolves breed; in April or May, wolves have an average of five pups. At 22 months, a wolf can start breeding; its pups are born in a den, which is dug in soil that is drained. Some wolves have their pups in a tree and will take them to the den later. Parent wolves focus all their activities on their pups when they are young; the adult wolves always travel to find food and then carry what they find back to the den. During the midsummer, pups are weaned, then, when winter arrives, parents lead their pups away from the den.
Alaskan wolves are excellent hunters, live in packs and raise their families in groups.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Alaska
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell
Author: Michael Russell
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