are an extremely social animal. They exist as a social
unit called a pack.
Wolves travel and hunt in a group
and perform almost all other activities in the company
of fellow wolves.
The pack, the basic unit of wolf social
life, is usually a family group. It is made up of animals
related to each other by blood and family ties of affection
and mutual aid.
The core of a pack
is a mated pair of wolves - an adult male and
female that have bred and produced young.
The other members of the pack are their
offspring: young wolves ranging in age from pups to
two and three-year-olds.
Pack sizes vary, most
packs have 6 or 7 members, although some may
include as many as 15 wolves. The size depends on many
variables including the current numbers of the wolf
population, the abundance of food, and social factors
within the wolf pack.
Within each pack is an elaborate hierarchy.
It may consist of a single breeding pair, the Alpha
male and female, a lower group consisting of non-breeding
adults, each with its own ranking, a group of outcasts,
and a group of immature wolves on their way up. Some
of the younger wolves of the pack may leave to find
vacant territory and a mate.
Individual wolves in
a pack play different roles in relation to the
others in the group. The parent wolves are the leaders
of the pack - the alpha male and alpha female. (Alpha
is the first letter in the Greek alphabet.)
alpha male and female are the oldest members
of the pack and the ones with the most experience in
hunting, defending territory, and other important activities.
The other pack members
respect their positions and follow their leadership
in almost all things, The alpha wolves are usually the
ones to make decisions for the pack when the group should
go out to hunt or move from one place to another.
The other Pack members all have positions
in the hierarchy inferior to those of the alpha male
and female. The young adult wolves, who are the grown-up
offspring of the alpha pair, have their own special
roles under the leadership or their parents. Some of
them me able to "boss around," or dominate,
their sisters and brothers because they have established
themselves as superior in some way. This superiority
might be physical-larger size or greater strength -
but it can be based on personality Dominant wolves in
the pack usually have more aggressive and forceful personalities
than their relatives of the same age.
The juveniles and pups-wolves
under two years old do not occupy permanent positions
within the pack hierarchy. They all take orders from
their parents and older brothers and sisters, but their
relationships with each other change frequently. During
their play and other activities, they are constantly
testing one mother to find out who will eventually be
"top wolf" in their age group.
Relationships among creatures that
live close together in groups are often very
complicated, like members of a wolf pack. Studies of
captive wolves and wolf packs in the wild have shown
that many complex rules of behavior seem to govern the
way that the animals relate us each other, the methods
that wolves use to communicate with fellow pack members
are also quite elaborate - see Wolf
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