Gray wolves are social creatures and they have a complex communicating system that involves body language, barking, howling, growling and scent making. Let’s have a look over some fascinating ways in which wolves around the world survive –

Majestic Gray Wolf Pictures

Characteristics:

Gray wolves play a vital role in maintaining balanced ecosystem and ecological harmony. They are keystone predators and their diet consists of hoofed mammals such as deer, caribou, rabbit and elk. Majestic gray wolf pictures proved to be helpful in preventing the spread of chronic wasting disease and contagious neurological disease in deer.

Behavior

Gray wolves are social animals and they live in groups popularly known as packs. Their communication skills play a very important role to the pack’s healthy survival. An alpha male and an alpha female, their pups and other juvenile wolves together they all form a typical pack. All the members of pack experience close relation with each other and communicate with sounds such as – barks, howls and growls. Remember that wolves and dogs are closely related to each other and the ways they communicate are similar.

Habitat

Yellowstone National Park is among one of the most beautiful places to get majestic gray wolf pictures and hear wolves in their habitat. These wolves require large areas of forests and mountainous terrain for survival. They must have sufficient access to prey, protection from enemies and areas for taking shelter within their habitat.

Conservation

Their conservation status is very high. Number of gray wolves is stable in most parts of the world including Europe, Asia and North America. They are considered as a species of least concern at the global level. Many programs have been introduced to make them feel comfortable in the protected land and this has greatly influenced their chances of survival in North America.

Breeding

Majestic gray wolf pictures reveal that they breed only once in a year between January and April months, depending on the conditions where they live. Female and male wolves take 2 to 3 year’s time to reach the level of sexual maturity. Their gestation period lasts up to 60 to 63 days and on an average they give birth to 7 pups born. Gray wolf pups are born blind and deaf, so they require proper care till they become mature.

Adaptations

Gray wolves are excellent runners and their body and limbs are well adapted according to their surroundings. When they walk only their toes touches the ground. Their canine teeth are perfect for slashing the flesh of other animals and crushing bones. Can you imagine living without food up to 2 weeks? But, wolves can fasts for two weeks in search for prey.

Features:

•Majestic grey wolf picturesrange in color from dark gray or black to completely white. You must be excited to know that they are the ancestors of domestic dog; this is the reason why they resemble German Shepherds or malamutes to large extent.

•Gray wolves are largest among all canines. Male wolf body length varies from 5-6 feet and female wolf body length varies from 4-6 feet.

•A rough estimate has been calculated that gray wolf eat 20 to 30 pounds of meat in one meal, but they can stay alive for up to 14 days without taking any meal with least sickness issue.

•The other significant feature of wolves is that they work together for hunting, raising their young ones and protect their territory. Young wolves live in their parents pack for at least two to three years.

At last, we conclude that organizations like – Defenders of Wildlife or National Wildlife Federation have taken several initiatives to help gray wolves from becoming extinct such as – banning aerial gunning and fighting to preserve federal protections.