Wolf Chat

Discuss wolves. (News, sightings, conservation, status, etc.)

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Karak-ron
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Karak-ron » Sun Jun 19, 2016 5:31 pm

Wolves are my favorite animals! They're sleek and beautiful, and overall majestic creatures. I love blue/green-eyed-white-wolves, because they remind me of angels. I was walking in a forest once and I actually saw a wolf pack. They were tracking something. I didn't want to disturb them, so I quietly ran away. But not without a few pictures! :D

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Koa » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:08 pm

Karak-ron wrote:Wolves are my favorite animals! They're sleek and beautiful, and overall majestic creatures. I love blue/green-eyed-white-wolves, because they remind me of angels. I was walking in a forest once and I actually saw a wolf pack. They were tracking something. I didn't want to disturb them, so I quietly ran away. But not without a few pictures! :D

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Wolves in the wild do not have blue/green eyes naturally. If you see a wolf with blue eyes, for example, you have probably seen (a a wolf dog or (b (if it's online) a photo manipulation of a wolf.

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by starstablefan_246 » Fri Sep 16, 2016 6:52 pm

I have a questions:
Can wolves eye's be any other color apart from yellow??
Last edited by starstablefan_246 on Sat Sep 17, 2016 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Uzumaaki » Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:41 pm

starstablefan_246 wrote:I have 2 questions:
Can wolves eye's be any other color apart from yellow??
i believe brown and orange-ish are customary eye colors for wolves, as well. puppies also have blue eyes until they grow out of them.
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Koa » Fri Sep 16, 2016 9:55 pm

Vakarian wrote:
starstablefan_246 wrote:I have 2 questions:
Can wolves eye's be any other color apart from yellow??
i believe brown and orange-ish are customary eye colors for wolves, as well. puppies also have blue eyes until they grow out of them.
From Wolf Q&A's FAQ:
What are the eye colors of a wolf?

Wolves are born with limpid blue eyes. The color reduces/fades and becomes lighter as the wolves mature and eventually the color of the eyes changes into any shade of amber, yellow, ocher, gold, or brown. Wolves can also have bluish or greenish tints in their eyes, but very rarely an adult wolf has blue or green eyes. Fully-grown wolves with blue or green eyes are not unheard of, but the condition of the eyes is caused by a rare genetic defect, or "glitch", and therefore blue or green-eyed wolves are extremely uncommon.

Pure-blooded wild wolves have not been documented being bi-eyed (heterochromic; having two differently colored eyes). Heterochromia is a common trait in Northern dog breeds and low and midrange wolfdogs, but not in wolves or high-content wolfdogs.
http://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34625

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by starstablefan_246 » Sat Sep 17, 2016 3:40 am

Thx for your time to answer!! :D
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by DaniBeez » Thu Aug 17, 2017 5:52 pm

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by xc92u3 » Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:55 pm

Canidae wrote:I'm sure a lot of you know what happens to some dogs when you scratch them right on the arch of their back, right? Sometimes they get chills, and/or their rear legs will tremble, and/or the muscles in the entire back portion of their body will tense up and they'll kinda fall over a bit.


But did you know this works on wolves, too? xD I've seen it done to two different wolves. I've done it to Shadow, an older wolf I worked with. And one time at a wolf sanctuary, they brought out a very habituated captive wolf named Forest, and my dad did it to him. xD It made everybody in the crowd laugh--nobody had ever seen a wolf display that silly behavior before.
Oh, I didn't know that! Haha! I thought just domesticated dogs did that. Hmm... I wonder if coyotes and foxes do it too.

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Black Burn » Fri Feb 23, 2018 2:21 pm

TimberRaven wrote:
Canidae wrote:I'm sure a lot of you know what happens to some dogs when you scratch them right on the arch of their back, right? Sometimes they get chills, and/or their rear legs will tremble, and/or the muscles in the entire back portion of their body will tense up and they'll kinda fall over a bit.


But did you know this works on wolves, too? xD I've seen it done to two different wolves. I've done it to Shadow, an older wolf I worked with. And one time at a wolf sanctuary, they brought out a very habituated captive wolf named Forest, and my dad did it to him. xD It made everybody in the crowd laugh--nobody had ever seen a wolf display that silly behavior before.
Oh, I didn't know that! Haha! I thought just domesticated dogs did that. Hmm... I wonder if coyotes and foxes do it too.
This is just a theory, but I think the reason Wolves and dogs do this is because the back is a very hard place to reach, meaning it just feels great when that annoying itch finally get scratched! It's kinda like when y'all have a itch on your back but can't find the backsrcacher!
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by DaniBeez » Fri Feb 23, 2018 6:04 pm

I did some informal digging (Wikipedia) and it turns out this behaviour, called the "scratch reflex" is found in not just wolves and dogs, but in other vertebrates (animals with a spinal cord) like reptiles as well!

Basically what happens: a physical or chemical signal, like a parasite, or your hand, or another chemically-induced "itchy" sensation, acts on the body's surface/skin. Neurons at that area of the body detect these signals and send a different signal back to the brain, which then tells the leg to scratch!
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by Phasoli » Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:05 pm

That sounds absolutely adorable. In the time that I met my first wolves, they did enjoy a good scratch on the rear too. The trainer told me that there was a gland by the base of their tail, and that the black mark midway down the tail was yet another scent gland. It's strange to me how animals tend to be enjoy being scratched by their scent glands, haha.
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by duskypack » Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:29 pm

That scratch reflex sounds adorable!

Was doing some research in my copy of Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation by L. David Mech and found out that sometimes wolves can travel for huge distances for seemingly no reason (OR7, anyone?), displaying a focus similar to their 'homing' behavior if they're taken within something like 75 miles of their territory. So they travel far, fast and focused. They also can pair up with other loners and travel with them for a distance outside of courtship. There was an anecdote about a male wolf who, in six years, was a part of three different packs, traveled with two females for a distance before splitting off, traveling alone and then traveling with another female for a while. It didn't imply they bred - just formed a pair bond and traveled. He was hit by a car when he was 8 after a fascinating life. Some of the unexplained behaviors of wolves are so interesting! (if anyone's interested in the excerpt, I can type it out and post it here - I read it a few days ago so I may have some inaccuracy in my paraphrase)
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by DaniBeez » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:55 pm

duskypack wrote:That scratch reflex sounds adorable!

Was doing some research in my copy of Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation by L. David Mech and found out that sometimes wolves can travel for huge distances for seemingly no reason (OR7, anyone?), displaying a focus similar to their 'homing' behavior if they're taken within something like 75 miles of their territory. So they travel far, fast and focused. They also can pair up with other loners and travel with them for a distance outside of courtship. There was an anecdote about a male wolf who, in six years, was a part of three different packs, traveled with two females for a distance before splitting off, traveling alone and then traveling with another female for a while. It didn't imply they bred - just formed a pair bond and traveled. He was hit by a car when he was 8 after a fascinating life. Some of the unexplained behaviors of wolves are so interesting! (if anyone's interested in the excerpt, I can type it out and post it here - I read it a few days ago so I may have some inaccuracy in my paraphrase)
Or save yourself some time and take a picture of the page(s) :lol: !
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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by alebrije » Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:36 am

Canidae wrote:I'm sure a lot of you know what happens to some dogs when you scratch them right on the arch of their back, right? Sometimes they get chills, and/or their rear legs will tremble, and/or the muscles in the entire back portion of their body will tense up and they'll kinda fall over a bit.


But did you know this works on wolves, too? xD I've seen it done to two different wolves. I've done it to Shadow, an older wolf I worked with. And one time at a wolf sanctuary, they brought out a very habituated captive wolf named Forest, and my dad did it to him. xD It made everybody in the crowd laugh--nobody had ever seen a wolf display that silly behavior before.
I think my love for the species just grew after reading this! It seems as though many animals enjoy being rubbed on the rear, or their scent glands -- i.e domestic cats to larger felines such as captive lions and jaguars. Is there a reason behind this?

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Re: Wolf Chat

Post by DaniBeez » Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:29 pm

alebrije wrote:It seems as though many animals enjoy being rubbed on the rear, or their scent glands -- i.e domestic cats to larger felines such as captive lions and jaguars. Is there a reason behind this?
I think there are a couple of possible explanations for these observations: there is a lot going on with touch!

Scratching is a reflex response to an itch. The "enjoyment" we perceive is the pain sensation from the act of scratching that distracts from the itch sensation!

Petting is a little different. Mammals with fur or hair also have many neurons in the skin around these hair follicles, that can send pleasure signals to the brain. Head/scalp massages anyone :lol: ?!

There's also lots of neurons around and in the spines of vertebrates, which probably explains why back scratches are a common favourite in some mammals like felines and canines. The sensations are probably more intense there than from other parts of the body.

For scent glands, it's possible that contact with the glands from a hand or an object prompts a scent-spreading behaviour.

This information is based on my own Googling, so someone can correct me if something's inaccurate!
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