Little Red Riding Hood Syndrome
by: Pilot Doesn't Know who!
If you are, or know, the author of this text. Please email me so I can get written
permission to use this here. I got this from the 'Howling Wolf' E-Group who also do not
know the author.
Little Red Riding Hood Syndrome
It is a dark, still night in the deep forest. You walk along a moonlit path listening to the crickets and owls, watching the light of a full moon dance across the far mountains. Suddenly you hear a low, mournful howl of a wolf. Do you stand there in fright? Do you get cold shivers running up and down your spine? Or do you just want to turn around and run like the devil? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, I'm afraid I have some very sad news for you. You are suffering from a terrible social disease. Its called "The Little Red Riding Hood Syndrome," and it's very contagious.
You have contracted it from your parents and teachers through legends, fables, folklore and fairy tales. A fear of wolves has been implanted in your memory since you were read your first story book. Don't worry-there is a cure and I will try to help you on your road to recovery. To do this, we must replace superstition with fact and learn more about this affectionate, playful creature.
The worst superstition is that wolves attack man without provocation. The fact is, there is no documented evidence that a wolf has ever attacked a human being unless rabid or provoked. Mrs. Joan Gerr, who raises wolves, has deliberately tried to provoke her alpha male (the dominant male) of the pack by teasing him while he was eating. She would reach out and try to grab at the kill he was feeding on. Although he threatened her, as he would any subordinate pack member, he never attacked.
My husband, Joe, goes into a 10 foot by 25 foot enclosure once a year with a breeding pair of wild wolves. He takes the cubs out of the pen when they are 10 days old to ensure socialization with humans. Neither the male nor the female has ever shown any signs of aggression. They both retreat to the opposite side of the pen area and stay there until he goes back out.
Wolves are terrified of man and will do their utmost to stay away from people. The old cliche: "They are more afraid of you than you are of them" definitely applies here. No animal has ever been more relentlessly hunted and killed by man than the wolf.
Now, let's displace another myth about wolves. The one that pictures the wolf as a solitary, loathsome creature who is always searching for something to kill, torture, or huff and puff and blow down.
To begin with, wolves live in a basic structural unit called a pack. The pack depends on lasting attachments formed with each individual pack member. A pack usually numbers around eight wolves and they are usually all related. Packs are spread out so there is one wolf for every ten to eleven square miles. They have a pecking order within the pack. The most respected, smartest and usually strongest male being leader of the pack. ( There are also packs whose leader is a female wolf). This wolf is the alpha male; he is the most dominant male. He is the one who eats first and best. All others are subordinate to him and show it by gesturing. They will come to him with their tails wagging and their heads lowered. Muzzle biting is another sign of submission. The subordinate ones will roll over and bare their throats to their leader.
There is also an alpha female in the pack. This pair is normally the only two in the pack allowed to mate. When they do mate, it is usually for life. Breeding begins in mid to late winter. Unlike dogs, wolves breed once a year. The cubs are born within 63 days of mating. Three weeks before the birth, the alpha female will begin to dig a den. A day before their arrival she will go inside the den and await the birth.
The average litter size is six pups. When they are born, the pack members usually rejoice in a chorus of howls. This has also been explained as nervous howling because the other wolves sense the alpha females' stress. No one knows for sure, but I like the first reason the best! When the cubs are born, they are blind, deaf and have little sense of smell. They move toward warmth and nourishment. When they are born, they weigh about one pound. Within 15 days they triple their weight and begin to open their eyes. On the 21st day they begin to hear and weigh between six and seven pounds.
In the wild, at this time, they are taken out of the den to meet the pack members. The mother will dig a temporary den under fallen branches or roots, just enough to give the pups some protection. From now until the age of four months the cubs are forming bonds with other pack members and earning their status within the pack. At four months the cubs lose the ability to form attachments so they don't become attached to other wolves. During this time pack members will help feed and care for the cubs. Aunts, uncles, older brothers or sisters will even "babysit" for the little ones while the alpha female partakes in a hunt. When the cubs are ten months old, they look just like their parents, only a few inches smaller. A male wolf becomes fully mature at three years of age; a female at two years of age.
The howl you heard earlier as you walked through the night time forest is used as communication or just to express happiness or excitement. Howling helps assemble the pack during a hunt and can be heard up to four miles away. Some Eskimos and Native Americans claim they can interpret howls. By listening to the wolves, they can tell how far away the migrating elk or caribou are, how long it will take the herds to reach the wolves' destination, even how large the herds are. Fiction or fact, this has never been proven.
The wolf can maintain a steady gait of four miles per hour. They can maintain a chase for twenty minutes and they have been clocked at 35 mph with bursts of speed up to 40 mph. So you see, the wolf would have been at the third little pig's house before he could get the first brick in place! But as in the
pig's story, the wolf does have a low hunting success rate and must hunt often. When they do make a kill, they can eat up to 20 pds in one feeding. Very little of the kill is wasted.
Now that you know a little more about wolves, I hope you are on your road to recovery. Wolves can be shy, affectionate, intelligent animals who have been given a bum rap. If you are ever in the wilderness and hear the call of the wolf, I hope you remember this and realize you have nothing to fear. Instead you can listen and hear the beauty in their voices.
