|
 |
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Gray wolf - CANIS LUPUS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Wolf": "Wolf" comes from the Old English word for the animal, "wulf."
Location: Northern North America and Asia.
Habitat: Terrestrial. All habitats and topography except deserts and high mountain tops. It also adapts to environments altered by man.
Description: The wolf is the largest member of the dog family. It is a powerful animal and has great endurance. It varies in color from white in Arctic regions to black in parts of North America, but is usually grayish or brownish. Color and size vary greatly in the different regions of its range. The wolf is about 48 inches long with a 12 to 18 inch tail additional. It weighs from 40 to 170 lbs.
Behavior: Wolves tend to live in packs of 5 to 15 individuals based around a dominant pair and governed by strict domestic hierarchies for both sexes. It hunts in this pack, the preferred prey being large herbivores such as elk, deer, bison, and mountain sheep, but it will also take smaller game, most commonly beaver and domestic animals. When food is scarce, a mouse is not too little to eat.
Reproduction: Usually only one female per pack reproduces. Mating usually occurs once a year in January or February, with gestation lasting about two months, after which four to seven cubs are born. The den is usually in a hole in the ground or a crevice in some rocks, and is often used year after year.
Note: Although many people fear wolves, and there have been many movies made depicting the wolves as dangerous to people, there is no known record of a wolf ever having killed a human being.
Go to the Carnivora Page to learn more about all the meat-eating animals.
Go to the Maned Wolf for
the only other Wolf listed in America Zoo.
From Address Labels to Zoo Toys... All Creatures Great and Small You'll Find It at the America Zoo Gift Shop Realistic Stuffed Animals & Animal Figurines Wildlife Decor for Your Home Animal Books, Magazines, and Educational Materials A Wide Variety of Wildlife Gifts & Apparel and Much, Much More  ↓ For Your Favorite Little Animal Lover ↓
Home Animal Research Library About AmericaZoo
|
