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Wolf, a truly a noble creature
 Wolves - very ritualistic animals - live by very carefully designed rules. Their sense of family is strong and loyal, with their social behavior based on a hierarchical structure. In other words, each has its place and function in the pack, or hierarchy.
These images show just a few examples of wolves communicating with one another. Body language involves the carriage set of the tail, hair (or hackels) raised to various levels and stance of the body, to name a few. Verbally, wolves emit many different growls, whines, barks and "huffs" of air. The pitch and length of their howl - unique to each wolf - also relays much information.
Although still cast as the blood-thirsty villian in folklore and children's stories, the public's image of wolves is finally improving, with interest in their preservation growing. Healthy wolves rarely ~ if ever ~ attack humans. The mortality factors affecting wolves include : persecution by humans; killing by other wolves; diseases; parasites; starvation and injuries by prey.
For those willing to listen, the wolf teaches us to know who we are, and to develop strength, confidence and surety in what we do ~ without ~ 'proving' ourselves, to others.
I wish to thank Monty Sloan
of Wolf Park, for the use of his beautiful photo's. Most of the photo's on these pages are owned and copyrighted by Mr. Sloan.
 
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Wolves hunt as a pack ~ the hierarchy in play ~ following the direction and orders of the alpha. The alpha will ~ through body language and verbal directions ~ "assign" teams/pairs of wolves to run down the prey -- running for hours at speeds of 20 mph or more. Relief runners will be waiting to continue the chase, giving the first team a chance to 'catch their breath.' The prey, now chased by a fresh team, is worn down, exhausted, with no where to go.
Wolves can be distinguished from dogs (Alaskan Malamute pictured to the right), by the characteristics of the skull -- particularly the orbital angle, which is the angle formed between lines drawn across the top of the skull and the side of the skull at the eye socket. This angle is larger (53 degrees or more) in dogs, and smaller (45 degrees or less) in wolves.