Everybody knows it, the angry barking of dogs behind the fence or the apartment door: When you enter their territory, attack them – some straight from the front, others only from behind. Many then only wag their tails in a friendly manner, as if to say: "Please excuse me. It wasn't meant that way.” But it was meant that way. The property, Haus, to defend the garden or car of their “pack”., dogs inherited from wolves. The wolf also defends the territory of its pack against every foreign wolf. However, its territory is much larger than that of a domestic dog and not only includes the narrow living area around the cave, but the entire hunting territory of the pack.
How big is such a hunting ground, depends on the number, but also on the behavior of the most important prey animals. For example, wolves live off reindeer, who hike a lot, they have to walk with them. In early summer it goes over the treeless tundra up to the polar sea coast. In autumn the herds move back to the edge of the forest, where the reindeer spend the winter. Such territories of a pack are particularly spacious, as big as all of Germany or even bigger.
causes of death
For a wolf, who has survived the particularly endangered puppy age, the average life expectancy in the wild is seven years. Almost half of all wolves do not reach this age. Most puppies die from malnutrition or its consequences, such as diseases, which they do not survive in the weakened state. Only when they reach old age, in which they can partly take care of themselves - about one year old -, their chances of survival are good for now. A year later they are fully grown and sexually mature and thus endangered again. They start wandering around, have but with all the dangers, who are waiting for her, few experience. They don't know cars and are therefore run over. That behind sheep, that are so easy to tear, angry people lurk, they don't know and will be shot. And that even their own species can be dangerous for them, they guess at most.
Long-term studies in America have shown, that especially then, when food is scarce, the majority of wolves are killed by other wolves. Many wolves then try, to make up for their dwindling hunting luck in their own territory by "poaching" in foreign territories – often with fatal consequences.