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Rank：Golden Member
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From：USA
- Register：12/15/2008 7:05 PM
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Date Posted：12/23/2008 9:32 AMCopy HTML
Wolves as Hunters
Wolves
kill and eat other animals for food. Depending on where they live,
wolves live mainly on the meat from such animals as deer, moose, elk or
bison. They also eat beavers, rabbits and even mice. They do not eat
humans. Wolves are not a threat to humans!
(There is no documented account of a healthy wolf ever attacking a human.)
Wolves are very shy around people and try to avoid them in the wild.
Wolves kill only to eat - to survive. Because wolves usually hunt for large animals, (although wolves are opportunistic and will eat smaller prey) they work together to catch their prey. Wolves will eat a healthy, strong animal if they can catch it.(Wolves need an average of three to ten pounds of meat each day).
Hunting is not always successful, so their bodies are designed to feast (eat a lot)or famine (eat nothing). Wolves can eat as much as 22 pounds of meat at a time and then may not eat again for many days.
Wolves
require from one to three quarts of water per day, depending on the
size of the animal, the climate, and the moisture content of the prey.
When
hunting in winter the wolf will conserve energy when ever possible, by
following the same trail as the prey animal, staying upwind, and
staying out of sight of the prey as long as possible. When it is time
to strike the wolf will start wagging their tails with excitement. Some
times when young pups are with the hunt they may dash after the prey in
the excitement and spoil the hunt.
Wolves are primarily nocturnal animals that avoid the heat of day. They generally commence hunting at dusk.
Wolves detect prey by three primary means, sent (most common), tracking, and chance encounters.
After
prey is detected, wolves may split up to search through brush, travel
on ridge tops searching for the prey below, or test herds looking for
signs of weakness.
It
has long been recognized that wolves often take advantage of wear
members of the herd. In 1804, Captain Clark of the famed Lewis and
Clark expedition wrote that prairie wolves followed buffalo and fed "on
those that are killed by accident or those that are too pore or fat to
keep up with the ganges."
Later
researchers reinforced the image of the wolf as a predator of the very
young, the very old, the weak, of the diseased. Aldolph Murie, in the Wolves of Mount McKinley,wrote:
"Many bands seem to be chased, given a trial, and if no advantage is
gained or weak animals discovered, the wolves travel on to chase other
bands until an advantage can be seized."
Lois Crisler notes in Arctic wild,
"In all our time in the arctic, the only healthy caribou we saw or
found killed were fawns with big herds." She observed that adult
caribou killed had "hoof disease, or lung tapeworm, or nostril-cloging
... botflies." In a 1980 study in northeast Alberta, T. Fuller and L.B.
Kieth found that "wolves killed disproportionately more young, old and
probably debilitated moose (Ales alces), as well as more female calves."
In fact, the only animal that habitually preys upon prime mature animals is man.
Although
it does not prey only on the weak and the ill, the wolf is
opportunistic, and it is inevitably the disadvantaged that are the
easiest to catch.
Weakened
animals may show thier condition to predators through body stance,
uncoordinated movements, the smell of wounds or infection, or some
other tangible signal. The reading and evaluation of these signals
comprises what Barry Lopez has poetically termed "the conversation of
death."
Once
a weak individual is selected by a pack, wolves will usually travel
upwind. By traveling upwind, the sent of any prey will be carried to
them. They will follow the air currents directly to the game. Or, they
may follow the sent trail left by a game animal's foot tracks and body
odors.
Just
before the chase wolves prefer to make there final approach downwind so
there body sent is not carried to the prey species, alerting it to
their presence
Prey
that runs is usually chased. Prey that stands its ground may be able to
bluff off its pursuers. Moose and Elk often take to deep water or swift
rivers and await departure of the pursuing wolves, But more often than
not the wolves wait. While the majority of the pack rests, one or two
members test the prey for signs of fatigue.
Usually the chases are short, but L. David Mech has stated that "One wolf I know of chased a deer for 13 miles."
David Gray described one such encounter in Canada's high Arctic in the muskoxen of Polar Bear Pass:"the wolves approached to within a hundred meters of the herd ... one wolf lay down as two others circled the milling herd."
Contrary
to popular belief, most prey chased by wolves actually gets away. In
one study, only three percent of the moose that were tested ended up
being killed. The percentage of prey that is killed is called the
"predation efficiency," and in spite the wolf's prowess as a hunter,
the majority of his prey escapes.
When
the attack comes, the prey is usually seized by either the nose or the
rump. Rarely, if ever, does a wolf hamstring a prey animal. This is one
of the oldest and most pervasive false beliefs held about wolves. As
late as 1980, the Aubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals
stated that the wolf kills "by slashing tendons in the hind legs.",
this is pure myth. The actual death of the prey is usually caused by
massive blood loss, shock, or both. Sometimes with smaller prey a neck
bite will snap a backbone.
The
Alpha wolf will eat first, Wolves usually begin to feed on the rump, if
it was exposed during the chase, or else on the internal organs. The
muscle and flesh is the last portion of the prey that is eaten, in
contras with human habits. Having stong jaws alows the wolf to crush
bones to get to the soft marrow, it also helps the wolf eat most of its
prey leaving very little waste at the killing site.
Another
myth is that packs are required to bring down large prey; several
observers have seen single wolves catch and kill elk and moose. The
first wolf to return to Sweden after the extermination of its wolf
population regularly brought down large moose by itself.
There
is evidence that wolves have some knowledge of proper prey management.
L. David Mech found one pack in Minnesota that varied its killing by
hunting in a different part of its territory each year, allowing prey
numbers elsewhere to recover, aiding the long-term survival of the pack.
Wolves
hunt out the weak, the sick, the old, and the injured. They help the
population of prey animals like the elk, deer, moose, and caribou, by
taking away the weak and letting the strong survive. This is important
part in the ecological system. By enhancing the strength into the
herds. Without animals like the wolf to eliminate the weak, old , sick
and injured, the herd of deer would swelter. They would become so
numerous that they would starve to death. The wolf helps keep them
healthy by insuring the breeding of the strong.
Wolves
also help feed other animals. When a wolf kills and eats, he sometimes
can't eat it all. This leftover feeds animals such as the buzzard, the
possum, fox, coyotes and eagles. They help keep the forest clean by
removing the sick before it can spread.
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