Wolves: types of wolves, description, nature, habitat

Many people experience genuine horror in front of these dangerous predators. In many respects this is due to the stories told by the hunters. They often characterize wolves as clever and even insidious animals. However, not everyone knows that a wolf in nature rarely attacks a person. These fierce predators prefer to stay away from people, they are accustomed to living their own lives, the main meaning of which is hunting.

Wolves: types of wolves

It should be noted that the genus of wolves on Earth is one of the few. It consists of only seven types:

• Canis lupus (wolf);
• Canis aureus (jackal ordinary);
• Canis latrans (coyote);
• Canis rufus (red wolf);
• Canis adustus (striped jackal);
• Canis mesomelas (capped jackal);
• Canis simensis (Ethiopian jackal).

The family of wolves include arctic foxes, foxes, a wolfish wolf, a raccoon dog.

Habitat

Scientists associate the origin of the wolf with the carnivorous predators that lived on our planet a hundred million years ago, and about twenty million years ago dogs emerged from wolves. As a separate species Canis lupus was formed in Eurasia a million years ago, and at the end of the Pleistocene it already became the most common predator.

Nowadays, wolves live in Europe, North America, Asia. They inhabit open and semi-open territories. In the north, the boundary of the predator is the shore of the Arctic Ocean. In Hindustan (in the south of Asia) the wolf lives up to 16 degrees north latitude. Over the past two and a half centuries, the number of these formidable predators has significantly decreased. By protecting domestic animals, a person exterminates them and displaces them from populated areas.

Already today wolves are completely destroyed in Japan, the British Isles, Holland, France, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Central Europe . Types of wolves in recent decades in Europe continue to disappear rapidly.

The wolf is still quite common in the steppes and mountainous regions of Kazakhstan, in the tundra and forest-tundra. Characteristics of wolves, which is given in many special publications, suggests that in the range of the wolf is quite variable - it has many subspecies, different in size, color, way of life in natural conditions.

Scientists-zoologists distinguish several dozen subspecies of the wolf. The largest specimens live in the tundra, the smallest in the southern regions. The weight of an adult animal can range from 18 to 80 kg, the length of their body can reach 160 cm, the length of the tail is about sixty centimeters.

Wolf Color

It largely depends on the habitat. Characteristics of the wolf inhabiting the Arctic, suggests that there are often white individuals. In addition, in other regions there are other colors - black and white wolves, variants of gray with white, color of cinnamon, brown, sometimes there is a completely black color of fur.

Predators living in North America have three color phases. The first is a mixture of gray, black and a shade of cinnamon with brown. The second one is black (a mixture of dark brown with black). The third phase is gray with brown.

Coat

These wild animals have an excellent fur coat. The wolf has a thick fur (length up to eight centimeters). It has a thick undercoat. The outer layer is formed by long, stiff, black-pointed coarse hair that repels water, and the undercoat does not get wet at all.

The teeth of a wolf

Wolves possess the most powerful weapon. Types of wolves, regardless of their habitat, have 42 strong and sharp teeth. Ahead are 4 curved five-centimeter fangs - two below and two on top. The predator easily bites through the thickest skin of his victim. A carnivorous (root) teeth adult wolf is able to gnaw even the bone of the hip of an elk.

Limbs

Animals that belong to the dog, and wolves, including fingered. In other words, they walk, leaning on their fingers. Only when the predator lies down, he touches the ground with his heels. The forelimbs of the wolf are very powerful, due to this the load is evenly distributed and the animal does not fall into loose snow.

Each front paw of a wolf has five fingers, but only four work. Paws have well developed naked crumbs, and fingers are collected in a dense and oval lump. They are completed by strong and slightly clawed due to contact with the ground claws. Their wolf uses when digging the ground.

Wolves move jogging, skipping or galloping. While walking their speed is about six and a half kilometers per hour. They run with a speed of up to sixteen kilometers per hour. For a very long time, a wolf can run almost without stopping. There are cases when these dangerous predators overcame a distance of up to 100 kilometers per night.

Smell and hearing

Characteristics of the wolf says that hunting does not have ears or eyes, namely the nose first helps the wolf to find prey. They catch in the wind the smell of even a very small animal, which is at a distance of up to two kilometers. A sharp scent allows you to pursue your victim on the trail.

True, predators are not deprived and thin hearing. Having heard the noise, they start to lead their ears and unmistakably determine where the sound comes from, often located a few kilometers away.

Wolf Pack

The family of wolves counts up to fifteen individuals in some cases, but more often there are eight animals in it. A flock is a family group consisting of animals of different ages. Usually it consists of parents, profitable (brood of this year) and mongrels (beasts that have not reached puberty). Sometimes it includes adult animals that do not participate in reproduction.

In years rich in food, up to 30 or more wolves can gather in flocks. The offspring stay in the family for 10-14 months, and then leave it. Thus there is a lone wolf. He goes in search of free territory, which immediately marks, declaring his rights to it. As a rule, such an animal soon finds its own pair and a new flock appears. Although there are cases when a single wolf lives for quite some time outside the pack.

The wolf family is a self-regulating mechanism. In cases where the density of the population is rather low, its size is small, the separation of the young offspring occurs much faster. When environmental conditions are more favorable, the density of the population increases, hence the size of the flock increases, however, up to a certain limit. As a rule, its growth is due to non-fat lone wolves, who are assigned a subordinate position.

The pack is run by a pair of predators - a male wolf and his girlfriend, whom, incidentally, he chooses for life. Thus, in the pack there is a nucleus of wolves with a high social status, and their subordinates. The leaders of the pack are very strong in character, which allows them to keep order in the family, not to allow skirmishes and fights, especially between young wolves.

Hunting area of the family

The pack survives due to the size of its hunting grounds, so predators defend them desperately. The border of such territories can be from fifty to one and a half thousand square kilometers. Wolves mark their territory, and do not envy the stranger who dares to violate its borders.

Sign Language

As a rule, wolves express their feelings with body movements and facial expressions. The wolf tongue helps to unite the pack and act in an organized manner. For example, when the tail of an animal is raised high, and its tip is slightly bent, it means that the predator is confident. The friendly wolf keeps the tail down, but the tip is slightly raised. A predator that has pinched a tail, or is afraid of something, or in this way reports sympathy.

In addition, the position of the tail can tell about the status of the animal in the pack. The leader always raises him high, and his subordinates keep their tail down. Wagging his tail, a formidable predator invites his relatives to play.

Welcome Ceremony

Members of the flock demonstrate respect and devotion to the leader in the welcoming ceremony. With their ears squeezed, they crawl cautiously with tightly wooled hair, approaching the leader and his companion cautiously, licking them and gently biting their snouts.

The diet of a wolf

The basis of the diet of wolves are large ungulates - noble and northern deer, saigas, moose, goats and sheep. In the absence of such food, the wolf hunts rodents, rabbits, and in rare cases eats carrion. In regions where there are no ungulates, wolves are not found or live in very small numbers. Predators attract large concentrations of livestock. In the north, in areas with developed sheep and reindeer breeding, the presence of wolves is common.

Wolves are widespread on the territory of Russia. The species of wolves that inhabit our country are well known. There are only six:

• Forest Central Russian wolf;
• gray;
• Tundra;
• Forest Siberian;
• Caucasian;
• Mongolian.

Gray wolf

This representative of the wolf is considered the most common in the world. The description of the gray wolf today can be found in all the reference books of zoologists. It stands out for its impressive size. The appearance of this predator is not devoid of nobility. Apparently, therefore, he often became a hero of writers who write about animals.

A gray wolf can be found in Europe, America and Asia. A downed, strong body with a broad massive chest, tall muscular legs leave no doubt that this is a real predator. This wolf has a lustrous but at the same time elegant head with small ears and decorated with dark stripes that settle around almost white cheeks and very light spots above the eyes. The tail is not long, it is almost straight.

The fur is long (up to eight centimeters) and thick, with undercoat. The coat of animals inhabiting the middle and southern regions is coarse. Wolves from the northern regions have a soft and fluffy coat.

Russian wolf

This is a special subspecies of gray wolf, which lives in the north of Russia. Russian wolf is one of the five subspecies that inhabit the territory of our country. Canis lupus communis (Russian wolf) - this is an animal called Western biologists. On average, the male weighs from 40 to 80 kilograms, the female from 30 to 55 kilograms.

Siberian wolf

It is no less a large animal than a Russian wolf. Many scientists believe that today this species has been allocated conditionally, since the systematization of Siberian predators has not yet been completed. These animals have several colors. The most common is light gray. Ocher shades are barely noticeable or completely absent. Fur is not very tall, but rather thick and soft. Most often found in the Far East, Kamchatka (except the tundra), in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia.

Steppe wolf

This animal is somewhat smaller than the representatives of the forest subspecies. He has a coarser and rarer hair. On the back, color with a noticeable predominance of gray-rusty, and often brown hair. In this case, the sides remain light gray. Today, this wolf can be found in the steppes of the Caspian, the Urals, and the Lower Volga. The species is poorly understood. A system of characteristic features has not yet been developed. The number of these animals is small, especially in the western regions of the range.

Caucasian wolf

This beast refers to predators of medium size. The Caucasian wolf has a coarse and short coat hair, the undercoat is poorly developed. The color of this animal is much darker than in the previously described species. This is explained by the uniform distribution of black outer hair on the skin.

In our country dwells in the areas of the Main Caucasian Range, including its wooded foothills.

Mongolian wolf

And this wolf is the smallest among those living on the territory of Russia. The weight of an adult animal is rarely more than forty kg. His fur is dull, dirty-gray in color, rough and hard. This species is widespread in the east and south-west of Transbaikalia, as well as in Primorsky Krai.

Tundra Wolf

A large and beautiful beast. His photo you see below. The body length of males often exceeds 150 cm. Predators have long, soft and thick fur. Color - light colors. In our country, this wolf settles in the forest-tundra and tundra zones of the European part of Kamchatka and Siberia.

Middle Russian (forest) wolf

A powerful predator inhabiting the forest-steppe and steppe zone of Russia, often inhabits Western Siberia. In the northern regions, his visits to the forest-tundra were noted. Although it is commonly believed that the largest in Europe and Asia is the tundra wolf, the representative of this subspecies often exceeds it in size.

An adult animal may have a body length exceeding 160 cm, and its growth reaches a meter. Of course, such parameters are characteristic of the largest individuals. On the average, the adult male weighs 45 kg, the burbank (1 year and 8 months) - 35 kg, and the profit (8 months) - 25 kg. Wolves are 20% lighter.

The predator differs classical, in gray tones with admixture of ocher, color. The Central Russian wolf lives in the forests of Central Russia, often penetrating to the west of Siberia. In the northern regions it enters the forest-tundra.

polar Wolf

This beautiful and powerful animal inhabits the Arctic. The polar wolf is perfectly adapted to the conditions of severe climate. From the cold and piercing winds it is protected by warm and dense wool.

This type of wolf is characterized by sharp eyesight and a wonderful nose that helps in hunting for a few animals living in these harsh places. Insufficient amount of biological feed and complexity in the production of feed lead to the fact that the predator eats prey completely, leaving no bones or skins of its victim.

The average weight of the animal is from 60 to 80 kg, the growth is up to 80 centimeters. It's amazing, but this animal in case of unsuccessful hunting is able to live without food for several weeks. True, then a wolf can eat up to ten kilograms of meat at a time. Wolves living in Russia are more aggressive than North American wolves. Attacks against people are recorded.