Hunting Wolves use their incredible sense of smell combined with excellent hearing abilities to help them find vulnerable prey. Wolves look for the animals they can kill easily, expending as little energy as possible and decreasing chances of injury. Large ungulates like deer, moose, elk and caribou are a wolf's primary food source. Wolves will also eat smaller animals like beaver, rabbit, mice and ground squirrel. When hunting large game, the wolf pack separates out and surrounds its prey.
Wolves usually bite the shoulders and flanks.
While some pack members harry the prey from the rear, other wolves seize the prey by the nose. Wolves' jaws produce immense power - a crushing pressure of about 1,500 pounds per square inch , compared with 750 pounds for average large domestic dogs . Wolves have 42 teeth specialized for stabbing, shearing and crushing bones. The first four teeth, front and bottom are called incisors and are used for nipping and gnawing meat from the bone. Wolves use their canine teeth, which can grow to be 2 inches in length, for gripping and holding itself to the prey animal.