Wolf`s-milk is very nutritious,
and so the puppies develop very fast. After eleven to fifteen days after
their birth, they open their eyes for the first time. During the first
three months, the eyes are blue, but then they change the color to a dark-yellow.
Little puppies are very active:
They climb on the adults and they bite them in the ears. The adults support
that with coolness, though the little ones are sometimes really a plague.
The puppies also struggle very often with each other, sometimes just for
fun but when it is food-time, then everyone wants to be the first who gets
something. Such „competition-struggles" train the muscular system, sharpen
the senses and promote the will for survival.
In the first two months, the puppies
drink the mother`s milk, but already after four weeks they begin to eat
a bit of the meat that the other wolves have brought.
The young grow up and they learn
easily under the parents supervision, what they have to know for survival.
They discover new smells, they chase insects and other little animals and
they do races.
After eight weeks, the appearance
of the puppies is already very similar to the adults`. The tail is bushier,
the ears and the snout are formed like those of the adults and the legs
are longer and stronger. They don`t drink milk anymore.
Their first set of theets is now
developed. So they can chase their own prey now (especially mice are preferred).
They don`t succeed the first times, but they learn very fast.
In the wolf school, the puppies
also have to learn how to count. Wolves can exactly remember any sounds,
smells, looks or number of things in their environment. If there are three
rocks in front of their hole, for example, and one of the rocks rolls away,
then the wolves know, when they are coming back, that something has changed.
Wolfes can barly recognize objects
in a bigger distance, if they don`t move. But on the other side, they notice
smallest movements, for example a flying bee many meters away.
That`s because the wolf`s eyes
have differently developed than the eyes of a human being. Wolf eyes can
better notice the whole picture than individual objects. So they can see
fast movements, but they cannot immediately see what has caused the movement.
The hearing of the wolves is excellent.
But the „smell-sense" is even better. If the wind blows in the right direction,
even a puppie is able to smell an animal which is several kilometers
away!
But to make such good achievements
with their sense organs, the puppies have to train hard. Their parents
are severe and sometimes they make it plain by biting the puppies in the
neck, that it is more important to learn than to play.
In autumn, the young wolves have got their steady position in the pack, and they go chasing with the adults, but they are still learning. (some photos: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.)
source:
"Wölfe": (Verhalten und Lebensweise) / R. D. Lawrence; F.Schneider
Verlag München