My recent post about two dispersing wolves somehow finding each other in Colorado and producing that state’s first pups, generated a question from a number of readers: How did the female, F1084, and the male, M2101, find each other in separate journeys that covered hundreds of miles?
I went looking for an answer to that question and found that wolves use a wide variety of communication tools to connect with other wolves. They communicate using voice and expression, posture and fur, even the tail. They also use their senses of smell and sight, touch and taste. Wolves learn to choose what they need to get their message across: during the day, for example, they may communicate with posture, but at night howling or other vocal signals may work better.
Communicating with Howling
Howling is, of course, the most well-known type of wolf communication and would have been essential to F1084 and M2101. One researcher describes how wolves have two types of howls: defensive and social. A defensive howl is intended to protect, to keep strangers away. A social howl is the kind these two dispersers could have used to locate one another, especially since howling is long-distance communication.
A wolf can hear another wolf’s howl more than six miles away in a forest and almost ten miles away in an open area. An average howl from a single wolf lasts only three to seven seconds, while a chorus by a pack lasts 30 to 120 seconds, and perhaps longer during breeding season, according to Fred Harrington and Cheryl Asa in Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation.
I can picture F1084 on her journey south through Wyoming and toward Colorado stopping periodically to howl and listen attentively for a reply. M2101 would have done the same, and at some point their howls must have crossed.
Once F1084 and M2101 heard one another, closed the distance, and met for the first time, they would have used different sounds to deepen their relationship. Noisy growls, snarls, or woofs would convey aggression or dominance. More mellow sounds such as whimpers, whines, and yelps would convey acceptance and submission. Communication such as this would have helped the two strangers become a breeding pair.
Communicating with Scents
But vocal communication is only one tool the two dispersers would have used to find one another. Another tool is a wolf’s incredible sense of smell, perhaps one hundred times greater than a human’s.
The wolf, according to Jim Halfpenny in Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild, “sees” with its nose. Wolves use the odor receptors in their nose and mouth to read abundant scent marks—drops of urine—left by another wolf. “A single sniff,” writes Halfpenny, “not only tells who was here but how long ago they passed.”
Harrington and Asa add that wolves also use their nose to determine age, gender, diet, social rank, emotional state, and breeding condition of wolves that have left scent marks.
Scent marks are especially helpful during breeding season. A female wolf comes into heat, estrus, in December. When she does, Halfpenny says, she “sheds sexual hormones known as pheromones in her urine. Wolves can smell pheromones in even small quantities and males are attracted.” The timing on a male sniffing such a scent is critical. Estrus only lasts about ten days and at or near the end of that time the female is receptive to mating.
During the many months F1084 roamed alone in Jackson County, Colorado, she would have left many scents that M2101 could have discovered and deciphered. In addition to scent marks, she would have deposited scat, her feces, in obvious places such as along trails and roads, especially at junctions. The sweat glands in her paws would have provided yet another scent. Her vagina and uterus would secrete other odors that could be detected from a distance. All those revealing odors would have been a much longer lasting communication than howling and would have helped F1084 and M2101 discover each other.
Once the two seekers came muzzle to muzzle, there would be, according to Harrington and Asa even more scents they could decipher. M2101 could have read F1084’s readiness to reproduce by sniffing or licking the saliva on her muzzle. Glands on each wolf’s back and tail could produce scents that revealed each wolf’s emotional state.
Communicating Visually
In addition to using sound and scent to find one another, F1084 and M2101 would have communicated visually using their teeth and nose; their ears and eyes; and their posture, fur. Visual communication may be as important as communicating with scents and sounds, but can be harder to master since wolves often use multiple visual cues simultaneously. A dominant wolf ready to attack, for example, will bare its teeth, raise its hackles, stiffen its legs, and move slowly. A submissive wolf, on the other hand, will hide its teeth, carry its body low, keep its fur sleek, and lower its ears and tail, say Harrington and Asa.
The tail, according to another researcher, is the wolf’s most dynamic visual aid. A wagging tail conveys friendliness. A raised tail makes a wolf look bigger and more threatening to another wolf. A stiff tail moving slowly may signal an attack. The researcher illustrated eleven tail positions that convey a variety of moods including assertion and intimidation, threat and submission, and uncertainty and depression.
Since visual cues are so critical, wolves must be able to see them at any time—even during times of low light when wolves are often hunting. To that end, wolves have what Harrington and Asa call “24-hour” eyes. Though wolves lose color vision and some acuity at night, they can still see the features of nearby wolves.
Communicating with Touch
Once F1084 and M2101 started spending time together, they would have made brief and repeated muzzle-to-muzzle or muzzle-to-fur contact. Such touching can build a relationship by reducing stress and strengthening bonds. Harrington and Asa mention studies of humans and their pet dogs which “…have shown that tactile contact reduces heart rate and blood pressure in both humans and dogs.” They speculate the same benefit may happen when wolves touch one another.
All these incredible communication tools that a wolf uses work together to help lone wolves find one another. I can picture M2101 finding scent marks that F1084 had left in her territory. He smelled the scent marks and concluded that they came from a female, perhaps a female ready to mate. He could have raised his muzzle toward the sky and howled to say, “I’m here. Where are you?” Miles away, F1084 could have stopped in her tracks and howled in reply, “I’m over here.” Once the howls continued and they finally came muzzle to muzzle they would have used their senses of smell, sight, touch, and taste to communicate and build the relationship that led to Colorado’s first breeding pair and first pups.
Photo Credits:
Wolf howling by Rick Lamplugh
Wolf sniffing by Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
Wolf chasing wolf by National Park Service
Wolves nuzzling by Eilish Reding Palmer
Rick Lamplugh writes, photographs, and speaks to protect wildlife and wild lands. His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.
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