Wolves are intelligent pack animals. They are carnivorous mammals that hunt in packs. They live throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Wolves have long snouts and pointed ears
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Wolf Facts for Kids
- Wolves are carnivores.
- Wolves live in groups called packs.
- They are social animals.
- You can hear a wolf howl 10 miles away.
- Wolves and dogs share a close relationship.
- They live up to 14 years in the wild.
- Habitat loss is their main threat to survival.
Wolves have excellent senses, sharp teeth, powerful jaws, sharp eyesight, and run at speeds up to 60 km/h (37 mph). The northern male wolf can reach a length of 2 meters (6.6 feet). They have long, bushy tails, half-meter long.
Fully grown adults reach 76 cm (30 inches) tall at the shoulder. An adult wolf can weigh between 14kg and 65kg (31 and 143 pounds). Females are 20 percent smaller than males. Canada, Alaska, and northern Asia have the largest wolves. The smallest live in the Middle East, Arabia, and India.
Their strong bodies have a fur color of gray or brown. Some species also have reddish, black, and white fur.
Arctic wolves are usually light-colored.
Where do wolves live?
Wolves prefer remote forests, grassland, and wilderness away from people. You’ll find them in North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
The red wolf lives in swamp areas, coastal prairies, and forests. You’ll find them in South-Eastern Texas to central Pennsylvania.
The Gray wolf lives in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic, also known as the Arctic Wolf.
The Great Lakes wolf, great plains wolf, timber wolf, and buffalo wolf live in Canada and Alaska.
Northwestern wolves, Rocky Mountain wolves, and McKenzie Valley wolves live in Canada and Alaska.
What do wolves eat in the wild
Wolves are carnivores (meat-eaters)
Been part of a wolf pack allows them to hunt in packs and take down bigger mammals such as Bison, Moose, Elk, and Deer.
They also eat Foxes, Squirrels, Beavers, Rodents, Birds, and Hares.
Wolves are carnivorous, but they are not 100% carnivorous.
A wolf’s diet is 60% meat, thus making them carnivores. The remaining 40% is plant-based material.
They have survived for thousands of years by adapting to their surroundings. They adopt a herbivore diet with the changing environments and food availability.
As a result, their diet has adapted
Do wolves have predators?
Bears will kill wolf pups if there is a dispute over territory. They even attack over the body of a mammal carcass that it’s come across.
Leopards also attack and kill wolves
Humans are one of the main threats and predators. Humans hunt them for sport and to protect livestock.
Wolf Packs
Wolves team together and both travel and hunt in packs.
A pack usually has one female and male, along with their young, and a total of around ten wolves in a pack.
The male leader is the alpha. He protects the territory and the pack. He fights off other wolves from outside the pack and intruders.
Most wolves do their hunting at night. These nocturnal hunters sleep during the daytime.
Only the alpha male and his female mate have babies. Young wolves are ‘pups.’ A female wolf can have a litter that can be from 1 to 11 pups.
Adult members of the entire pack will care for the pups when they are born. By the time they are two years old, they are adults.
When the wolf population of Yellowstone Park in the U.S. declined, animal numbers got out of control. This caused issues with food. Wolves controlled the population and kept animals from starving. A slow reintroduction to the area and the balance is being brought back.
How many wolves in the United States
There are over 18,000 in the US with over two-thirds found in Alaska
How many wolves in the World
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, It’s estimated that they are over 300,000 wolves around the world
Wolf fun facts
- Wolves communicate using body language, barking, howling, scent-marking, and growling.
- Wolves have immense strength and use their acute senses and social structure to protect themselves from perils.
- Wolves can live in a variety of temperatures of both very cold and very warm.
- They are the biggest members of the Canid family.
