The Family
In a family there is always protection and attraction. In this picture there are some wolves, although the black one looks different it is a sibling to the other three wolves.
Wolves are very social creatures. They live together and hunt together in large groups called packs, aka Families. A pack is made up of an adult male and female wolf plus their offsprings, which vary in age. Some packs range from 3 to 20 wolves, some packs have more.
The leaders of the pack are called the alpha male and alpha female. These two are the dominant wolves over all the others in the pack. Not only are they the dominant wolves but there also the only ones aloud to breed and have pups in the pack, and to top all that they are the first to get to eat no matter who catches it.
The wolf pack leadership changes from year
to year. The leader normally is never the same as the year before.
The wolves chose their leader through hierarchy, most of the time, but
at anytime a wolf lower in the hierarchy may challenge the alpha wolf
for leadership of
the pack.
When a alpha male loses they normally
go off and find a mate to start a new pack. Other wolves that are
very low in the hierarchy may leave at anytime to start their own life.
This is what a typical pack of wolves would have in it:
* Mother and Father wolf (alpha pair)
* Aunts and Uncles
* Their Puppies.
In a wolf pack there are different rankings to a pack, the top
rank is the alpha (alpha wolves walk/run with
their tail up), the nexted is Beta (Beta walk/run with their tail about
all the way up), there is a group of wolves inbetween Beta and Omega
but they have no name. THe Omega is the last in line, kind of like
a peasent and the Alpha is the King. The way a wolf is identified in rank
is by their (a) Posture, (b) Stares, and (c) Physical Interaction. Those
three things that help the alpha maintain his/her position in the pack.
