Timber Wolf

Canis lupus

Very Easy (Monogamous)

The **Timber Wolf** or **Gray Wolf** (*Canis lupus*) is a large Holarctic canine featured in the Standard Edition of *Planet Zoo*.

## Zoopedia Description

### General

**Population in the Wild:** 300,000

Timber wolves (or Canis lupus) are a large canid species that live across most of the Northern hemisphere. Also known as grey wolves, they are large generalist predators that will eat most prey they can catch, and which are capable of living in a wide variety of different environments.

The appearance of timber wolves can vary widely and is mostly dependent on which population is being observed. There are 38 subspecies, each with adaptations to their specific environments, thus causing their varied appearance. In general, they have a mottled grey-brown fur coat, pointed ears and a long straight snout. In terms of size, the wolves have a slim build with a deep rib cage and long legs.

The species is not endangered. However, the timber wolf's range has been decreased by 30% due to humanity's expansion into the environment and the subsequent change in land use. Wolves continue to be challenged by human action; they are a wide-ranging species who require large areas for hunting and roaming, which often causes conflict with people as they may kill livestock or scavenge in urban areas. There is no official global wolf protection, although some countries have conservation practices in place to protect their regional wolves.

### Social

Wolves are very social animals that live in family packs. An average pack contains one alpha male, one alpha female, their young adult offspring, and a litter of pups that are less than a year old. Wolf packs are closely bonded, and wolves get distressed if their pack is separated or if a pack member dies.

### Reproduction

In a wolf pack, the alpha male and alpha female are monogamously bonded and mate for life, and only they have young within the pack. Their pups stay with them until they are sexually mature or until food competition becomes too high, at which point they will leave the pack and become a lone wolf. Lone wolves look to meet another lone wolf of the opposite sex and establish a territory. If they find a partner, they mate during the breeding season and reproduce a litter of pups once a year and will stay together for life.

## Animal Care

 FEEDING STATIONS
 FOOD ENRICHMENT
Rotation Line Feeder · Pinata Enrichment · Dog Ball · Bamboo Feeder
Cardboard Box · Chew Toy · Prey-Scented Sack · Sprinkler · Ice Block · Blood Scent Marker · Small Ball · Bobbin · Small Ice Ball Enrichment · Gift Box · Small Ball Colourful · Rubber Duck

## Trivia

### Zoopedia Fun Facts

* Wolves, with the exception of some breeds of domestic dog, are the largest canid species.
* Wolves howl as an alarm call, to assemble the pack, to locate each other if they get separated, or to communicate across long distances.
* In North America, wolves have hybridised with domestic dogs, which has introduced black colouration into the wolf population.
* Wolves in cold countries can withstand temperates of -40°C. When it is this cold, wolves lie close to the ground and use their tail as a muffler over their face.
* Wolves are apex predators; they are only threatened by humans, bears, and tigers.
* Wolves harmonise when howling in a group to create the auditory illusion of a larger pack.

### Other Trivia

* The wolf is the ancestor of the domestic dog (*Canis lupus familiaris* or *Canis familiaris*). However, modern wolves are not identical to the wolves that gave way to dogs; the wolf variety that was initially domesticated is likely extinct.
* The Zoopedia claims that wild wolf packs have hierarchical structures, which came from a book published in the 1990s. However, this was quickly discovered to have been mistaken in applying the behavior of captive wolf packs made up of unrelated individuals to those of wild wolf packs, which are large wolf families lead by a breeding pair. The man who published the book was the one who discovered this fact.
* Black wolves are a naturalized, introduced color variation. Modern wolves did not have the genes for black coats until they began to crossbreed with domesticated dogs ~50,000 years ago. Black coated wolves are rare on the European and Asian continents, where the reduced wolf populations made these crossbreeding events less common. They are more common on the North American continent, with almost half of the Yellowstone wolf population being made up of black coated individuals.
* Although some wolf subspecies are naturally white, such as Arctic wolves, white wolves have been observed in other subspecies. These wolves are leucistic, with a white or cream coat and blue eyes. As of right now, leucistic wolves are not in the game.