LEADER OF THE PACK

The wolf pack is very like a human family group, in which the oldest male and the oldest female are the leaders, and the young must do as they are told. Wolves and human have many patterns of social behaviour in common, for both evolved as social hunters who had to keep together in a team so they could kill animals larger than themselves. Wolves guard their territory closely and make their presence known by howling. Each member of the pack knows his or her position in the scale of dominance, and any wolf that tries to assert itself is likely to be expelled from the pack by the leaders. The only pair of wolves to mate are the dominant male and the dominant female, and after the cubs are born the father will bring meat back to the den for the mother. The cubs are suckled for about ten weeks, and then the mother and the younger wolves will feed them with regurgitated meat (partly digested meat returned to the mouth from the stomach) until they are old enough to start hunting with the pack. At first, the young cubs can behave as they like and all the wolves will put up with their play-fights, but as they grow older they too must learn to keep their place.

CUBS AND PUPPIES

The young of all members of the dog family (Canidae) look quite similar when they are new born. They are small, defenceless, blind, and shorthaired, with short legs and a little tail. At first, like all mammals, the cubs or puppies, which may vary in number from their mother. After a few days (about nine in the domestic dog) their eyes open, they begin to hear, and they soon need more solid food. This is provided by the mother, and in social species by other members of the group who vomit up (regurgitate) meat that they have previously eaten. A mother dog who looks as though she is being sick in front of her puppies is, therefore, not ill but is providing them with their first solid meal. In the wild the young are nearly always born in a den or hole in the ground, and in the same way a domestic dog need a dark, warm place where she can give birth, which will happen about 63 days after she has been mated.

BEHAVIOUR

ehaviour in the dog family is divided into two distinct groups of solitary hunters, and social hunters. The solitary hunters – that is, the foxes and South American wild dogs – live on their own, except when they are mating and rearing their young. The wolf, jackal, coyote, African hunting dog, dhole, and the domestic dog, are all social hunters. Their behaviour is in many like that of a human family in which the parents are the leaders, while the children should do as they are told until they are old enough to leave and form their own family groups. In a wolf pack, or a family of African hunting dogs, every individual knows which other dog is above or below it in the family hierarchy and it will fight hard to keep or to better its position. Even though wolves are such powerful killers, fights between them seldom end in death, and if one wolf is injured the others will often help it to feed.

SOLITARY HUNTERS
Foxes, including American grey fox, are solitary hunters that kill their prey by themselves. They do not, therefore, have the complicated, interactive behaviour of the social hunters. A fox’s tail cannot wag as expressively as a wolf’s and its upright ears are not so mobile. Even so, if a fox is frightened it will cower down to make itself look small, and if it is angry it will stand up as tall as can to look large and threatening.

SOCIAL HUNTERS
The African hunting dog and other social hunters not only have to provide enough meat for the family group but they must also defend themselves againts other large predators, like the big cats and hyena. However, human hunters have always been the main competitors of the social hunters. The wolf has been exterminated over much of its vast range in Europe and Asia, and the African hunting dog and the dhole are also near to extinction. Only the jackals and the coyote, being smaller and more adaptable, continue to flourish.