Know any cool wolf facts?

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

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loboLoco
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Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by loboLoco » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:28 am

We are looking for interesting facts about wolves -- either in Yellowstone or in general -- for the game's loading screen. (They'll be displayed randomly along with gameplay tips). We'd love to hear any cool facts that you may know. Short and pithy is best, and if you have a source for the fact, all the better. Thanks!
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moonwolff2O
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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by moonwolff2O » Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:34 am

Wolves can run on their toes, which helps them to stop and turn quickly.
Wolves have a scent gland on the surface of their tails that is called a violet gland.
A wolf actually has a bigger brain than a domestic dog's.
Dogs and wolves are genetically 99.9% identical.
Wolves are the largest members of the dog family.
Under certain conditions, wolves can hear as far as six miles away in the forest and ten miles in the open tundra.
By the mid-1900s, wolves had been almost entirely eliminated from 48 of the U.S. states. It wasn't until 1975 that the process to restore wolves in Yellowstone began.
The average lifespan for a wolf in Yellowstone National Park is four to five years, and outside the park it is two to three years. The oldest wild wolves might reach an age of 12 or 13 years, but this is rare.
(Sources: Dog and wolf DNA: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 259390122X / https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dogs-99-percent-wolf/
Violet gland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_gland
Wolves larger than dogs: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... gray-wolf/
Wolves almost eliminated: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/w ... ration.htm
Yellowstone wolf age: https://www.nathab.com/know-before-you- ... gray-wolf/ )
Last edited by moonwolff2O on Wed Jul 03, 2019 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by SophieTheAiredale » Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:10 pm

1: The average paw size of a wolf is four inches wide by five inches long
2: A wolf has 42 teeth
3: The average travel speed of a wolf is 5 mph
4: Wolves can survive on 2.5 pounds of food per day, but require about five pounds per day to reproduce successfully.

Facts 1 through 4 can be found here:
https://www.wolf.org/wolf-info/wild-kids/fun-facts/

5: Wolves in the Arctic have to travel much longer distances than wolves in the forest to find food and will sometimes go for several days without eating.
6: Wolves are excellent hunters and have been found to be living in more places in the world than any other mammal except humans.
7: The wolf is the ancestor of all breeds of domestic dog. It is part of a group of animals called the wild dogs which also includes the dingo and the coyote.
8: Wolf pups are born deaf and blind while weighing around 0.5 kg (1 lb). It takes about 8 months before they are old enough to actively join in wolf pack hunts.

Facts 5 through 8 can be found here:
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefac ... /wolf.html

EDIT: I found some more wolf facts so here you go!

9: Wolves typically hunt within territories, ranging from 50 to 1,000 square miles.
10: On average, gray wolves will eat 20 to 30 pounds of meat in one meal, but have also been known to go up to 14 days between meals with no ill effects.
11: There are five subspecies of gray wolves in North America. Their coat colors can range from pure white to brown, gray, cinnamon or black.
12: Gray wolves are carnivores that usually prey on ungulates much larger than themselves, such as elk, deer or moose, but will also eat smaller mammals such as beaver, rabbit or livestock.
Facts 9 through 12 can be found here:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/goo ... ray-wolves
Last edited by SophieTheAiredale on Wed Jul 03, 2019 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That's a bit odd, don't you think?

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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by DaniBeez » Wed Jul 03, 2019 2:37 pm

"Despite their frozen habitat, the paws of arctic wolves stay just above freezing temperatures due to increased blood flow in their foot pads." Henshaw et al. 1972.

Tried to keep the game's main demographic in mind with the wording :) .
Last edited by DaniBeez on Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by LamarWolf » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:22 am

The largest wolf pack ever recored was 42 wolves strong in Wood Buffalo (But scientist don't know if it was on or two packs)
Wolves will sometimes stray from their carnivore diet and eat blueberries
Wolves in British Columbia only eat the heads of salmon because the body contains a parasite
I found the following from http://www.bigrunwolfranch.org/about_wolves.html
Wolves will travel up to 550 miles from their home territory to find a mate
The next ones I got from https://www.wolf.org/wolf-info/basic-wo ... wolf-faqs/
The biting capacity of a wolf is 398 pounds per square inch
The size of a wolf pack is dependent on food availability mortality rates and come in a wide range, but red wolf packs are generally smaller then gray wolf packs.
In the Western Great Lakes region wolves breed in February to March, wolves in the Arctic breed later from March to April.
I got this one from Leo Leckie
Wolf 9F is responsible for 70-75% of the genetic base of all yellowstone wolves.
Life is full of death
It is the way of life
Predator and prey
I bring life and I take it
That is the way of nature

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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by DaniBeez » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:36 am

These two facts could help introduce players to the concept of common names and scientific names for species:

1. "The wolf species featured in WolfQuest is the grey wolf. The scientific name for the grey wolf is 'Canis lupus'." Linnæus, 1758.

2. "Despite their common names, both the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) and the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) are not closely related to the species featured in the game, the grey wolf (Canis lupus)." There's no one single source for this kind of statement, but you could cite Bardeleben et al. 2005.

Having fun with these facts!
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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by aftherion » Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:49 am

The largest wolf subspecies (now extinct) was Bernard's wolf (canis lupus bernardi) measured up to 4ft tall at shoulder! (http://www.cosmosmith.com/bernards_wolves.asp and other scources)

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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by DaniBeez » Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:30 pm

"When wolves travel long distances, they use a very efficient gait called the 'direct register trot', also known as 'single tracking'. In this special trot, the hind paws meet the ground in the same place where the front paws did moments before." Elbroch 2003.

(Here's a super cool pic of it!)
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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by elkhunter123456 » Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:39 pm

1.Wolves feet are webbed
2. Wolves have 200 million scent spores
prey:
hare
beaver
mule deer
elk
moose
competitors:
raven
eagle
fox
coyote
wolf
cougar
bear

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LamarWolf
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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by LamarWolf » Thu Jul 25, 2019 5:21 am

Scientist estimate that about 2 million wolves used to roam North America, but due to heavy hunting trapping a poisoning wolves were almost wiped out.
Life is full of death
It is the way of life
Predator and prey
I bring life and I take it
That is the way of nature

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Re: Know any cool wolf facts?

Post by DaniBeez » Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:33 pm

Were suggestions from this thread implemented into the game? Unfortunately I can't verify for myself.
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