Wolf Abilities

[Ice Paw]

I understand that wolves have special smelling and hearing power, but how far does this go? Is what I read fact or fiction? In many books I have read that are realistic fiction, the wolves can "read" their target. How long ago they had been there, if it is weak or strong, or if it was alone or with a herd or pack. Can wolves really do this? I realize to some extent they can, but how far does that go? They can pick out the weak in a herd, but that's by watching it. How far do wolves' abilities go?

[Blightwolf]

What you've heard is largely correct information. Wolves do possess a certain special "intuition" when it comes to detecting (physical) vulnerabilities.

Wolves readily spot indications of vulnerability. Prof. Harry Frank wrote in an e-mail to me:

"Wolves are extraordinarily sensitive to movement cues. Something as trivial as a head cold can affect one's gait. Even if the head cold-sufferer is unaware of it, a wolf is likely to detect it."

- Dr. Valerius Geist, The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Source: http://westinstenv.org/wp-content/Geist ... humans.pdf

[Raining Precedence]

Indeed, wolves senses are refined. Adding on to Blightwolf here with a few specifics;

SENSE OF SMELL
The sense of smell in the wolf is highly developed, as would be expected in an animal possessing numerous scent glands. The distance at which any scent can be detected is governed by atmospheric conditions but, even under the most favorable conditions , 1.75 miles denotes a particularly keen sense of smell. The wolves usually travel until they encounter the scent of some prey species ahead of them. They then move directly toward their prey in an effort to capture it.

HEARING
Next to smell, the sense of hearing is the most acute of the wolf's senses. Wolves can hear as far as six miles away in the forest and ten miles in the open. Wolves can hear well up to a frequency of 25 khz. Some researchers believe that the actual maximum frequency detected by wolves is actually much higher, perhaps up to 80 khz (the upper auditory limits for humans is 20 khz), also according to some naturalist wolves' hearing is greater than that of the dog.

SIGHT
Wolves also have keen eye sight and are quick to detect the slightest movement of anything in front of them. Being major predators, their eyes are on the front of there heads, and they have probably a little less than 180-degree vision, unlike their prey species, which can see over 300 degrees of a circle.

http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/ ... .html#main

[Ice Paw]

Thank you so much you two! I really appreciate the help! Now I am assured of wolves' senses haha. Thank you so much! Keep up the good work!

[ZeRivet]

It seems that the information/sources provided has answered the question, and so to avoid having answers repeated in the future...I'm going to lock this up now! Thanks Blightwolf and Raining Precedence for helping/answering the question. ^^

:Locked: