And also!

[sholio]

I posted this to Tumblr a few days ago, and it's gone viral: a picture of my hand next to a wolf track.



We had a light snowfall this weekend and found the tracks of a pack of wolves that had crossed our property just a few hours before we went out walking the dog. At one point they were all running side by side and we counted at least five individuals (and possibly more).

For comparison, here is my hand next to the dog's track (and he's not a tiny dog; he's a 55-lb retriever mix) and the dog's tracks next to the wolf's tracks.





Wolves are big.

Comments

[oracne]

Coooooooooooool.

[sholio]

:D

It was really neat. I've seen the tracks of individual wolves here before, but never a whole pack like this.

[merisunshine36]

That's so neat!!!

[lunabee34]

whoa

[eos_joy]

That's awesome! *__*

[schneefink]

Whoa! I was wondering if you just have a small hand, but that it is so much bigger than the paw print of a dog...

[sartorias]

Whoa, that is one big-ass wolf!

[ambyr]

Wow, those are great pics!

[cornerofmadness]

Wow that's impressive and cool.

[muccamukk]

Very cool! Your wolves are larger than our little scruffy Coastal wolves.

[recessional]

West Coast coastal wolves? Yeah, they smaller. There's neither need nor reward for them to be Big: their major terrestrial prey is smaller kinds of deer/etc, and their other major food sources are fish and shell-fish and stuff. They don't NEED to take down Moose and Muskox really at any point, so there's nothing driving them to Hugeness.

Interior wolves are sort of in between. Unshockingly.

[muccamukk]

I'm aware. I live in a national park.

[recessional]

Sorry that was meant to be cheerful talking about-things-that-are-interesting, not "you clearly don't know this". :/

[muccamukk]

That was my low blood sugar reply, certainly!

We do get proper grey wolves here, but they're smaller because of smaller pray, as you say. Though they still have GIANT FEETS. Maybe because they swim. The one currently hanging around has about 5" front paws.

[kore]

Do most wolves have bigger feet? I don't think I ever saw a wolf in NM, just tons of coyotes.

[muccamukk]

This is the one with the 5" tracks. You can see it's a decent size with a nice round tum, but it's not really that much bigger than a large dog.

[kore]

Wow, he's beautiful. (He?)

[muccamukk]

Haven't gotten close enough to check.

[ride_4ever]

You live in a national park? Are you in the employ of the Park Service?

[muccamukk]

Lighthouse keeper with the Coast Guard.

[ride_4ever]

Wow. If I search through your DW will I find details of what it's like for you to do that kind of work? Must be wonderful to have a job that gives you so much close-to-nature time.

[muccamukk]

The pictures tag probably most informative.

HI SHOLIO'S COMMENT SECTION.

(whoops)

[sholio]

Your wolves are the swimming island-hopping ones, right? :D I've read about those. (Although maybe those ones are further up the coast than where you are.)

[muccamukk]

We actually have the regular kind that are just mildly smaller because they're starting to behave like the island hopping ones (which are more towards Bella Bella, yes). Whatever used to be here was hunted out completely and has since repopulated from the mainland, but 40 years in they're more or less turning into Pacific Coastal Wolves (sounds like an airline) or whatever the biologists have decided to call them this week.

[kore]

Pacific Coastal Wolves is the name of your new band

[madripoor_rose]

Whoa, cool!

And yeah, even bigger than our coyote tracks. Which are probably coydogs anyway....

[genarti]

So cool!

[gwyn]

Wowsa!!

[recessional]

Especially northern wolves.

Not all wolves are actually QUITE that big (can you tell I've had this discussion before?), but wolves in the Northern Boreal and onto the taiga have to be big enough to take on caribou, elk, moose and even muskox and other megafauna; similarly, buffalo wolves were equally Big, while tending to run either in smaller packs, or in a structure where you ran around in smaller packs until you all get together to take on something Huge.

Places where their primary prey is mule deer, white tail deer, or even smaller animals, they're less "holy shit god huge" and more "that is a REALLY BIG GERMAN SHEPHERD/HUSKY dog". Like they're never SMALL, but.

[goss]

o_O

(Also, whoa, very cool indeed!)

[cofax7]

Woooah. That's so cool!

[kore]

WHOAH squared

[monanotlisa]

WOLVES!

(Or, as R. just croons, "puppy!")

[lilacsigil]

Wow, I didn't know they were that big! (Which is the same thing people visiting here say when they run into male kangaroos!)

[killabeez]

Wowza!

[umadoshi]

Oh, wow! ^_^ That's so cool!

[nenya_kanadka]

Oh dude those are AWESOME pictures. Eee.

[ride_4ever]

I had no idea they got so big! Really effective showing, how you did the comparison pics.