Mexican Wolf

Mexican wolves are carnivores and primarily prey on large, hoofed animals (called “ungulates”) like whitetail deer, pronghorn, and elk. Predation on these animals varies seasonally. It is highest during mid to late winter, when prey animals are experiencing poor nutrition and the snow is deep, making them easier to kill. It is also quite high in early summer when prey animals have their young. Wolves primarily hunt in packs for large prey, but lone individuals will hunt smaller prey like beavers, rabbits, and other smaller animals. They will utilize the entire carcass, including some hair and bone, and will scavenge others’ kills.

Wolves require at least 3.7 pounds of meat per day for minimum maintenance. Reproducing and growing wolves may need 2 to 3 times this much. It has been estimated that wolves consume around 10 pounds of meat per day, on average. However, wolves don’t eat every day. Instead, they live a “feast or famine lifestyle” where they may go several days without a meal and then gorge on over 20 pounds of meat when a kill is made. Opportunistic wolves may also eat livestock and garbage when it is available.

At the Zoo, Mexican wolves receive a specialized ground carnivore diet. They also receive large bones on their fasting days, to mimic the natural diet schedule in the wild. As enrichment, the Mexican wolves receive what Animal Care staff affectionately refer to as a ‘farcass’ (fake carcass), which can be made up of meat, bone, antlers, and fur frozen into an ice mold that resembles part of a carcass. This enrichment is presented in a way that elicits the natural feeding behaviors of wolves.

Historically, Mexican wolves were found throughout southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and as far south as central Mexico. Today, reintroduced wolves are limited to the Gila Headwaters ecosystem in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Mexican wolves are found in a variety of southwestern habitats. They prefer mountain woodlands to low deserts due to access to cover, water, and available prey.

Wolves are apex predators, crucial to maintaining ecological balance. Historically, the most pressing threats were persecution and targeted hunting due to predation on livestock. While human conflict still poses challenges, habitat loss, and fragmentation are the leading causes of wolves' vulnerability today.

Mexican wolves have buff, gray, and rust-colored coats, often with distinguishing facial patterns. They have large heads with thick, elongated muzzles. Wolves can kill their prey effectively because they have incredibly strong jaws and specialized sets of teeth. They can break hard bones in just a few bites. The large nasal cavity allows for a keen sense of smell. Mexican wolves have excellent hearing and binocular vision, which allows them to hunt efficiently. Long legs and oversized paws with non-retracting claws mean the wolves are agile and quick.

Female gray wolves choose their mates and often form a life-long pair bond. After mating, the female digs a den to raise her young. The den is often dug under cover with an entrance that slopes down and then up again to a higher area to avoid flooding. Several dens may be used within a territory and repeated use of dens is common from year to year. After a gestation period of about 63 days (about 2 months), typically five to seven pups are born in the den.

They will stay in the den until about five weeks when they start exploring just outside the entrance. Pups begin to wean off of mother's milk and ingest solid food at about five to nine weeks old. Many members of the pack care for the pups, including regurgitating meat for their food. Wolf pups develop rapidly; they must be large and accomplished enough to hunt with the pack at the onset of winter. At approximately ten months old, the young begin to hunt with the pack.

Wolves have an intricate communication system utilizing sound, scents, and body language. Wolves’ vocalizations can be separated into four categories: barking, whimpering, growling, and howling.

Barking is used as a warning. A mother may bark at her pups because she senses danger or a bark-howl may be used to show aggression in defense of the pack or territory. Whimpering may be used by a mother to indicate her willingness to nurse her young. It is also used to indicate submissive behavior. Growling is used as a warning. Howling is the one form of communication used by wolves that is intended for long distances. A defensive howl is used to keep the pack together and strangers away, to stand their ground and protect young pups that cannot yet travel from danger and protect kill sites. A social howl is used to locate one another or rally together. They have an amazing sense of hearing and can hear howls up to 10 miles away!

Wolves have a very good sense of smell and can learn a lot of information from scents. Wolves mark their territories with urine and scat, which are long-lasting signals to others. They have glands that emit pheromones, which are a type of chemical message between the members of the same species. Wolves also use body language to convey the rules of the pack. To communicate dominance, they carry their tails high and stand tall. Less dominant wolves exhibit submissive behavior by holding their tails down and often lowering their bodies while pawing at the higher-ranking wolves. If angry, they may stick their ears straight up and bare their teeth. A suspicious wolf pulls its ears back and squints. Fear is often shown by flattening the ears against the head. A wolf that wants to play dances and bows, similar to how dogs do.

Wolves are highly social, pack-living animals. Each pack is made up of 2 to 36 individuals, depending upon habitat and availability of prey. Most packs are made up of five to nine individuals. Packs are typically composed of a breeding pair and their offspring, including young of previous years. Unrelated individuals may also become members of packs.

A wolf pack is very organized. The pack is made up of leaders and followers. The pack leaders are the male parent and the female parent – usually the father and mother of the other pack members. They are often the pack's oldest, largest, strongest, and most intelligent wolves. They are known as the dominant pair and are usually the only members of the pack to produce pups, thus are also referred to as the breeding pair. Any wolf can become the dominant male or female. However, to do so, it must find an unoccupied territory and a member of the opposite sex with which to mate. Or, more rarely, it moves into a pack with a missing dominant male or female and takes its place, or perhaps kills another dominant wolf of the same gender and takes on its mate. The dominant male and female oversee the pack.