| Wolf Pups and Family Life |
| Most young people are very curious about baby animals and how they grow. Here are some facts about baby wolves that may answer some of your questions. Baby wolves are called pups. Usually 4 to 6 pups are born together. This is called a lifter, and the pups in a lifter are called liftermates. Pups are born inside a den. A den is sometimes a small cave or a hole dug out of the ground. The den must be big enough for the mother and her pups. It shelters them from the weather and protects the pups from other animals that may want to hurt them. Packs sometimes use the same den year after year. At other times they make or find a new den each year. Pups grow inside their mother for about 63 days before being born. At birth they weigh only 1 pound and their eyes are closed. Pups grow quickly. About 12 to 15 days after they are born they open their eyes. By 2 weeks of age the pups can walk, and about a week after that they may come out of the den for the first time. At first they live only on milk from their mother. In a few weeks they start eating more and more meat. This is brought to them in the stomachs of the adult wolves. The pups lick around the mouth of the adult and the food comes back up into the adult's mouth. This sounds terrible to us, but wolf pups love it! When pups are 6 months old they look almost like adult wolves. Around this time they start hunting with the rest of the pack. All the wolves in a pack help take care of the pups. When the pups are very small, other pack members bring food to the mother so she doesn't have to leave the den. When the pups are a liftle bigger, pack members "take turns" bringing them food, playing with them and even "babysitting." Once the pups are about 8 weeks old, they leave the den and start using "rendezvous sites." These are meeting places where the wolves gather to sleep, play and just "hang out." Until the pups are old enough to go with the adults, they stay at the rendezvous site. Often one of the adult wolves stays with the pups to watch over them. Wolf pups love to play. They chase each other and roll around the way dog puppies do. Many of their games appear to be a sort of practice for the things they will do as adult wolves. Pups have been observed playing with "toys" like bones, feathers or the skins of dead animals. They "kill" the toys over and over again and carry them around as "trophies." As they get bigger they begin to hunt small animals, like rabbits. This is all good practice for the day they join the pack for their first real hunt for large animals. The International Wolf Center 1396 Highway 169, Ely, Minnesota 55731 (218) 365-4695 |
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