Home is where the scent is
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A wolf's territory is it's home. Even when hunting, wolves usually
stay within the land they have marked as their own. Their
activities on this land change throughout the year in accordance with
the seasons. In the spring and summer months, wolves remain fairly
stationary. They stay close to their dens or home sites to care
for new pups. In the fall and winter the wolves are nomadic,
traveling and hunting as a pack.
Wolf packs mark large areas of land as their hunting territory by urinating, like dogs, on trees and other natural landmarks. These areas may be as small as four square miles or as large as one thousand square miles. The size depends on the availability of prey, the climate, the type of terrain, and the presence of predators and other wolf packs. In the world of the wolf, a series of scent marks along a territory boundary constitutes an old factory 'no trespassing' sign. In addition to marking their hunting territory, wolves may also spray areas of recent kills to claim possession of the kill site. Another form of marking territory is by leaving feces, or scat, behind. Wolves are known to leave scat every 250 yards along their most traveled hunting routes. Wolves also establish their presence in a territory by scratching. By pawing the ground, wolves are able to release odors from glands in their paws. |
