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by Harshgrind on January 7th, 2005

Harshgrind

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Why do wolves howl?

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  • by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on May 11th, 2006

    Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

    Social significance of Wolf Howling
    Although the wolf is centrally important in the ecology of Algonquin, it is not an animal that will ever become a conspicuous part of the Park scenery. When we referred, in the first part of this account, to Park visitors having first-hand wolf experience here, we had in mind its voice, one of the wolf's outstanding characteristics, and the only one with which most of us are likely to have any contact. Contrary to widely held belief, wolves do not howl when they are chasing or killing prey but instead use howling for their own communications. They very often howl together as a pack, with much simultaneous tail-wagging and obviously friendly interactions, and this suggests that it has some social significance, perhaps akin to community singing among human beings. Also, in heavily forested country such as Algonquin, and where much activity takes place at night, howling undoubtedly permits pack members to maintain contact with each other as no other method could. There is also considerable evidence that packs howl to warn strange wolves of their presence and, in effect, to defend their territories against interlopers.

    This is quoted from
    http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/nature/mammals/wolf_howling.html

    See the site for information on 'public wolf howls', occasions when park staff organize long distance 'sing-a-longs', you might say, with the wolf packs in Algonquin Park in Ontario.

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    • Algonquin Park, eh? I'm going there soon.

      A

      by A on May 15th, 2009

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