During the first few weeks of my brother and sister's lives, our mother stays with us while our father and other adults of our pack hunt. Our den is very clean and smells pleasant as our mother ingests the excreta that we leave about. After about 3-4 weeks have gone by, our mother may join in the hunt, but one member of the pack will remain behind and watch over us....(research has found that if the mother of us pups dies during the nursing period, another female from our pack will nurse us, even if she is not pregnant. The sucking action on her mammary glands causes milk production).

At birth, we are no bigger then squirrels, weighing about 1lb and our eyes stay closed for 10-15 days and by the 3rd week, we are making all kinds of growling noises and eating regurgitated meat from members of our pack.

We are allowed to come out of our den on the 3rd week but are not allowed to stray to far, always under the watchful eye of our mother or father or some other adult. When we come out, the other adults are wagging their tails and play with us, placing their mouths over our heads and dragging us a bit. Sometimes they raise their paws up and tap us on the head gently to keep us in line. We don't have any problem on knowing who our mother is from all the other's that are there, we just know her little squeak that she makes when she calls us.

We often will change dens a few times following our birth, I guess it is for security reasons or perhaps sanitary reasons. By 6wks, we are old enough to follow our parents around and accompany them on short trips. When we reach the age of 2mths, we weigh about 15-20 lbs and we will keep our baby teeth till 6mths of age. When summer comes, we all move out of the den and establish a rendezvous site which is set up near water and gives a clear view of the neighbouring countryside. This site serves as a meeting place for everyone. Our mother will sometimes bring us out to the prey that has been killed so we will learn how to find our way back to the meeting place.

The most important part of the day for us is play, by running and chasing, wrestling and tumbling, ambushing one another and other objects, we develop strong muscles and bones and mimic adult life situations. This playing intergrates us into the pack, constantly reinforcing the bonds between us and the other pack members.

Hunting comes naturally to us, like pouncing on bugs for an instance, but still we must learn and practice our hunting skills from what we learn from our parents and the other adults. Most of the time they only bring us there to watch as they bring down a prey. In the summer, our diet varies from small animals, birds and even fish or even yyuucckk fruit or greens. Sometimes we will eat large quantities of food in a short period of time and sometimes we go without food for several days. We are use to this reality of intermittent fasting. But our main choice is usually moose or deer or even beaver and muskrat because of the high protein and fat content.

As we further mature, our parents along with other adults from the pack will take us out on hunting trips in search of prey so we can refine our skills and become great hunters like them and our forefathers before them. As yearlings, sometimes we must stay behind at the den or meeting place and help with the care in the young ones, just like we were taken care of in our early lives. Eventually though, we too will hunt and provide for the pack and help in the raising of a strong unity that survives within the family.....

taken from the book "The Wolf ; Ghost Hunter" by Daniel Leboeuf...c 1996

FACTS

10 to 13 days : the eyes open

3 weeks : they can hear ; their milk teeth apear ; they explore the den

4 weeks : they leave the den regularly ; weigh about 5-6 lbs ; begin to

eat meat and begin to howl

5 weeks : they may travel up to a mile from the den with parents

5-8 weeks : pups are weaned and then moved to a rendezvous site

12 weeks : they begin to accompany adults on hunting trips

16-26 weeks : the milk teeth are replaced

7-8 mths : they actively begin hunting

taken from the book "The Wolf Almanac" by Robert Busch...c 1995

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