Wolf

The gray wolf, Canis lupus, lives in the northern latitudes around the world. There are five subspecies of the gray wolf in North America and seven to 12 in Eurasia. In addition to gray wolves there are two other species of wolf in the world. The red wolf, Canis rufus, inhabits the southeastern United States and the newly recognized Abyssinian wolf, Canis simensis, which some zoologists think is really a jackal, lives on the highlands of Ethiopia. The wolfes in Central and Northern Europe were nearly hunted to destinct in the 1800-century. Today the populations of wolf is growing with the largest in Eastern Europe. There are about 15.500-18.000 in Europe and more than 100 in Finland. The wolf is very endangeroud in Finland. Wolfs are a very social animal and lives in small packs with strong inner connections.The pack consists usually of the adult parents (alfa-male and alfa-female) and their offspring of perhaps the last 2 or 3 years. The adult parents are usually unrelated and other unrelated wolves may sometimes join the pack. Generally a pack has from six to ten wolves. Usually only the leader male and female only get pups.

An adult male wight is about 40 kg, the female weight about 32 kg. The lenght from nose to tale is 150 cm to 200 cm. The height is usually about half meter but amy also be even 80-90 cm. Wolves prey primarily on large, hoofed mammals such as white-tailed deer, elk and reindeer. Medium sized mammals such as hare, can be an important secondary food source. Occasional wolves will prey on birds or small mammals such as frogs and field-mouses. Wolfs can be starving for several weeks, even months without eating, and eat at a time several tens of kilos meat.

The pups are born in May-June. The female gets 5-6 blind and deaf pups. In the beginning they do only react on the warmth of the female. Two weeks old their eyes open and three weeks old they start to hear, move and react on other activities. 4-7 weeks old is the most important stage for the pups as then the first social relations are set. As 6 months old they start to eat food given by all adults in the pack. When the pups are five weeks old the female move them to another nest, a gathering place, usually close to water. They stay at this place the whole summer. One to two years old they leave for making an own pack. Females may stay in the group and take care of their mothers new pups.

Wolves in the wild have an average life of six to eight years, but wolves have been known to live up to 13 years in the wild and 16 years in captivity. The natural causes of wolf mortality are primarily starvation, which kills mostly pups, and death from other wolves because of territory fights. While not usually a big problem, disease can be a concern in small and recovering populations. Injuries caused by prey results in some deaths. Poaching is well spread and perhaps the largest reason to death for wolfs in Europe. (WWF Finland, WWF International, De 5 stora, 2001) ) People has always been affraid of wolfs for different reasons, such as that they kill domestic animals (mainly dogs and sheep).

In the Swedish language there are several expressions in realtion to wolfs, such as:

"wolf-times" (little food available, starvation)

"wolf-winter" (very cold winter)

"throwing to the wolfs"

"wolf-grin"

"greedy as a wolf"

"wolf in sheep clothes"

"do-not-call-the-wolf" (do not promote an accident) (De 5 stora, 2001)

Here follows a story of a wolf hunt at the end of 1800 in South-East Finland:

"It was Christmas eve and just time for the Christmas Sauna. Suddenly the men in the village found out that it would be good to go and hunt a wolf. They took a piglet from the pig stable and put it in the sleigh. Then they made a straw-pig that could be dragged after the sleigh. The real pig was sitting in the sleigh screaming and the straw-pig jumped after the sleigh. Only a few kilometers outside the village the wolf appeared and as it jumped on the straw-pig it was shot immedeatly. The women at home were worried that the men had left for the hunt just as they had to go to the Christmas sauna but when they come back with the wolf worries were replaced by joy over the dead wolf". (Norrby, Lappträsk)