Think of it as a lone wolf? Generally speaking, in the human world, it symbolizes a hero, uncompromising and admirable, but in real life, the life of a lone wolf is very miserable, and it will even die soon because it has not found a team to accept itself. The descriptions and abbreviations of wolves in this article refer to gray wolves unless otherwise specified. )
Wolffy
Since 15000 years ago, when wolves were tamed for the first time in East Asia, people, the most widely distributed large terrestrial mammal on the earth, have long been used to having a dog around them. According to genetics, dogs are undoubtedly descendants of wolves, and their DNA is almost identical. In the process of gradually changing wolves into dogs, human beings have created an ultimate companion, and dogs that have faded from wildness have become the most proud helpers of human beings for thousands of years.
In fact, dogs still retain many characteristics of wolves, such as loyalty to their companions, super social skills, and the ability to communicate and express.
dog
But it needs to be clear that modern wolves are not closely related to wolves that were domesticated into dogs. The study of canine paleogenomics shows that the extinct late Pleistocene wolves may be the ancestors of dogs, and modern wolves and dogs are close relatives and cousins.
Grey wolf is the largest land mammal on the earth after human beings and livestock, and it is also one of the few carnivores who can live in the same place as most wild animals such as tigers, leopards and bears. In the Russian Far East, gray wolves live with the Northeast Tiger and the Far East Leopard. In Europe, gray wolves often deal with brown bears.
Late Pleistocene wolf
Gray wolves once spread all over most parts of the northern hemisphere, from America above 15 degrees north latitude to Europe and Asia above 12 degrees north latitude, and their habitats spanned several temperature zones, showing strong adaptability to various topographical environments.
However, with the development of the human world, wolves are more and more threatening to livestock, which leads to the extinction of wolves in many places, such as western Europe, Mexico, the southern United States, Southeast Asia and so on. Compared with the historical distribution, the habitat of gray wolves has decreased by more than one third.
Distribution map of wolves
Gray wolves have shown strong adaptability to wetlands, forests, bushes, grasslands and other terrain. Even in cold and snowy days, they can still live well, mainly because gray wolves can save body heat by reducing blood flow near their skin.
Since ancient times, the distribution range of wolves has been influenced by the richness of prey, human living area and other factors, especially after entering modern times, human factors have occupied an increasing proportion. For example, in Canada, Alaska and other places, the habitat of gray wolves is gradually reduced to the wilderness or sparsely populated remote areas within 12-75 degrees north latitude.
The habits of the grey wolf The grey wolf is the largest member of the canine family. Although wolves rarely attack humans, they are still considered as one of the most terrible animals in nature, especially in inland areas with many animal husbandry, such as Mongolia. It is very common for wolves to attack livestock, and the large-scale killing of livestock by wolves can be called wolf disaster.
2/kloc-0 At the beginning of the century, Xinjiang suffered from a wolf disaster. Nearly 500 sheep in Barkun county were killed by wolves, which brought tens of thousands of yuan of economic losses to local herders.
There is no doubt that eating meat is their nature. Like most terrestrial mammal predators, wolves mainly feed on wild herbivorous mammals, although they also eat domestic animals. Wolves prey on different prey objects in different areas, mainly depending on the local environment and the state of wolves, but most of them are large prey that are easy to attack.
For example, in North America, gray wolves mainly feed on large prey such as deer and bison. They hunt in packs. A moderate number of wolves can even put down 500 kilograms of moose and eat up their prey in a few hours.
Wolves prey on bison.
The grey wolf is Nocturnal Animals, but relatively speaking, he doesn't strictly abide by it. During the day, they also move, and members of the group exchange information through barking. Once they decide to hunt, wolves from all directions will form a team.
They eat a lot. An adult wolf can usually eat 10- 15 kg of meat at a time. When the prey is enough, the wolf may catch it instead of eating it, that is, kill it, but not in a hurry to eat it, but put it aside until the food is not enough, but this situation is often opportunistic for brown bears, hyenas and so on? Hunters? Pick it up.
Compared with cats, wolves' claws are not flexible, sharp or short. Not suitable for rock climbing, but suitable? A plane? Therefore, most gray wolves in the world make a living by digging holes, usually living near water sources, but sometimes they rob the caves of foxes, beavers and other animals, and then slightly expand and transform them into their own nests.
Wolves have a strong sense of territory. Once an area is selected, unless it cannot survive, it will rarely migrate, especially caves. Once selected, it will settle for a long time.
Wolf? Rules? So-called? No rules, no Fiona Fang? Almost all canines in the world are very social, just like to live in groups, and almost all of them have their own? Rules? Every member needs to abide by this rule if he wants to be sheltered by the group.
As the most typical existence of canines, wolves naturally have their own survival rules. Wolves are established according to a strict hierarchy, and are led by the biggest and strongest male wolves. What's the wolf's name? Wolf? , has an absolute position in the wolves. Secondly, this wolf's spouse is often the largest female among wolves, and its position is immediately after the first wolf.
The status of wolves can often be seen through some body movements. For example, the wolf's tail is more upturned, and it looks more upright when standing, while the wolf's tail with lower status will be closer to the ground and stand higher? Only Nuo Nuo? .
A wolf in a lower position needs to show obedience when he sees a wolf. The main feature is that the ears fall backwards, similar to the way dogs look at their owners, but wolves don't wag their tails. They will hold their tails with their hind legs and show their throats. If the low-level wolf does not show obedience to the head wolf, then the consequences are serious and light. Beaten? , or kill or drive away the wolves.
Wolves have a very strict hierarchical structure, and all members of the group must abide by it. Although the status of each individual is fixed, there is also a chance to be promoted. That's the challenge, when some male cubs get older, at this time? Rebellion? It will also be stronger, isn't it to show your character, if the wolf gives it one in daily friction? Is that all? Impression, then these powerful members will challenge the wolf, if they win, then it is logical to take the place of the wolf, and the wolf will be killed or driven out of the pack. If you are defeated, the consequences will be the same.
In fact, many people think that the concept of wolf is obtained through fighting. There is no denying that this phenomenon does exist, and there were many before. However, with the destruction of the wolf habitat by human beings, there are no large wolves now, and most wolves keep the shape of 5- 1 1, including 2 adult wolves, usually parents, and 3-6 sub-adult individuals, 1.
So in this small wolf group, the head wolf is usually? Father? , the highest status, even if other sub-adult individuals have the ability to grow up, they will not overthrow the rule of wolves when it is unnecessary, and naturally follow their parents as they did when they were young.
Research shows that experts find that this social structure and hierarchy of wolves can help wolves unite and stabilize order, and at the same time, it can also reduce conflicts between group members, and even help reduce aggression between two neighboring wolves.
With blood as a link, build? Super group? It is found that despite the lack of prey in some areas, all individuals in wolves can still maintain their loyalty and dedication to each other, which is probably due to the unique composition of wolves. Although wolves and lions live in groups on the surface and are led by male individuals, if we carefully separate the relationship between individual members, we will find that they are essentially different.
The main individual of a lion is a lioness, and all lionesses are sisters, aunts, grandmothers and so on. And all individuals in wolves, whether male or female, are mostly brothers and sisters.
Because of the different consanguineous structure between groups, the cubs in the lion group and the cubs in the wolf group have different hierarchical status in the group. The cubs in the lion group are doomed to leave, so they have the lowest status, while the cubs in the wolf group are mostly descendants of the first wolf and the first female wolf, so they have a higher natural status and will be taken care of by all members of the group.
When these cubs grow up, if there is no room for big wolves in the same area, then young individuals will leave their families and form their own wolves again. In this way, some males can become the heads of new wolves without fighting.
Grey wolves are naturally very sociable animals. They interact frequently in daily life. Whether hunting, patrolling, playing or eating, they spend a lot of time communicating physically and verbally. When this sociable animal forms a team with blood relationship as the link and family as the unit, it is conceivable how powerful this group is.
Wolf is an extremely complex social unit. In this group, there are parents, brothers, uncles, menstruation, and of course there are some unrelated individuals, but they are very few.
When these individuals unite near two male and female wolves, as a group, the fighting power will make the tiger afraid. The wolf is the key to maintaining the order of wolves. It determines the hunting time and frequency of wolves, and also determines the order of eating. Once the head wolf disappears, especially the female wolf, it will have a devastating blow to the cohesion of the whole wolf pack.
Because most wolves are? Relatives They grew up together, played together and hunted together. As a whole, they naturally take care of their injured companions. Studies have found that when one member of a wolf pack loses his life, other members will cry for it.
Wolves have a strong sense of territory, and the size of territory usually depends on the richness of prey. In areas with more prey, a wolf's territory may be small, 48 square kilometers is enough, but when the prey density is small, the wolf's territory will expand, even reaching thousands of square kilometers.
Wolves spend about 35% of their time patrolling the territory every day, looking for prey, and the walking distance is about 30-50 kilometers. The territory between wolves may overlap. If there are enough prey, their endurance will be higher. Even if they meet, they may ignore each other, but once food is short, the two sides will become incompatible.
Wolves determine their territory by marking urine. When there is an intruder, the whole wolf will fight back under the leadership of the wolf. The fighting between wolves is different from that between hyenas, and the fighting between different groups of hyenas may stop, even if it is a little fierce. The hyena queen? The fighting will stop soon, but the fighting between wolves is usually fatal, and even the losers will be wiped out, because for the same territory, the outcome determines who has the right to live here, which is the root of their despair.
The world of lone wolves is no better than the world of human beings. The description of "The Lone Wolf" is almost a compliment. It is a symbol of a hero, and it also represents good qualities such as strength, courage and independence. But don't let the beauty of literary creation affect our correct understanding of the lone wolf in real life. The lone wolf in reality is miserable, far from being as powerful as people think.
According to most research reports on wolves, the probability that a lone wolf can survive is about 20%, and it will become very fragile or even die for various reasons.
There are many reasons for becoming a lone wolf, such as losing the position of the wolf, the defeated wolf, the members who were driven out, and so on. But in any case, all roads lead to the same goal and become a lone wolf. With luck, these lone wolves can find new wolves to be accepted again, but most wolves are a family group, and it is difficult to open their arms to a strange member. So once they become lone wolves, does that mean? Have you had enough to eat and sleep? Even have to live in fear, because if you are not careful, you may invade the territory of other wolves and be hunted down.
Wolves live in groups. Although there are many wolves living in the forest, almost all wolves live in open areas, such as sparse grasslands and woodlands with few trees. Because they hunt in groups and need open land to chase their prey.
But all this is aimed at the social nature. Once a lone wolf becomes a lone wolf, the advantage of the group will disappear, and the open area will make it extremely difficult to hunt, so most lone wolves will pick up carrion if they can't catch their prey. In addition, it will be bullied by tigers, leopards, bears and other wild animals, and even smaller lynx can clean it up.
Eurasian lynx vs lone wolf
A half-adult wolf killed by a lynx
Many people may think that the lynx is so small that the wolf should be its natural enemy, but a large number of facts show that the lynx is underestimated. For example, 1997-206438+ was found in the study of the gray wolf and Eurasian lynx in Naliboki forest and Pazier forest. 2065438+In April 2007, an adult male wolf was seriously injured after fighting with a lynx in Nariboki forest. A large number of facts show that adult lynx, especially large male lynx, can win the battle with any lone wolf.
In the wolf's cognitive world, it is not interested in loneliness, even very exclusive. Even if it becomes a lone wolf for various reasons, it will take the initiative to find a wolf that can accept itself. They are eager for collective life. After all, in the group formed by blood and family, it has brought great sense of security and protection.