A bit about myself

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I am a belgian girl.  I'm 27 years old now.  I live in Hoboken, near Antwerp.  When I was a little girl I already loved dogs and there ancesters the wolves.  I loved to see documentaires about those big wolves and I never believed the tail about the big bad wolf who ate people and animals.  When I became 18 years I started to collect everything I could find about wolves and their relatives. This website is the result of my collecting and if you want to find out more about me go to the linked page, you can find me and my dog there. 

go to  cindyshomepage

The next photo is a nice animal but what is it?  a dog or a wolf ?

    This is not a wolf !

This is a " SAARLOOS WOLFHOUND ". It is a breed from the Netherlands and looks like a wolf. but is not. The very first wolfhound was breed from a Germain Sheperd mother and a wolf father. After many generations this dog became the gentle dog he now is.

The colours of his coat are: white,crème, wolfsgrey and brown.  The two last are the most seen color he can grow to 65-75 cm hight and the female dogs grow to 60-70 cm hights.  He is gentle with kids, very intelligent, and sweet. This dog does not bark often.  An early socialisation in neccesaraly to bring balans into his life.He will learn easy commands but it is not a dag that give full obedience.  They are very healthy dog's and for a dog like he is, he can become very old.  15 to 20 years of age ar no exeptions.   When you see it walk than you see a wolf walking. If you want to see more, press the picture and come into the "Saarloos" page

He is very rare outside the Netherlands. The Saarloos exists now for about 30 years , so it is a young breed.

The dog and his History

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    Every one has heard at least one time about the wolf and his link with the dog. 

Every one knows the bad story's about the wolf and his killerreputation.  But the wolf is not such animal. He is a gentle animal that only kills for his food or when a stranger enters his territory. They do not often attack humans. And when they do it is because that wolf is feeling under threat of the human Or when they think that the humans are a danger to their nests.. And most of the time it will happen in the Winter when he has no food at all.  Most of those story's are not true.

A wolfpuppy is so cute        and when they grow up to be a big wolf. They still are cute and beautiful

  look for yourself.  Is this not an very beautiful animal? 

The Wolf is a pack animal, The live in an order. The leader is called the Alphawolf. His authority is respected by every member pf the pack. They know their places in the pack and live in harmonie. Every pack has it's own territory. The defend it against intruders and strangers by setting out on strategic places spots of their smells.  With dog's you see that too.When you take him or her out for a walk.

The first real domestic dog was spotted about 14.000 years ago and they looked like the wolves we know. According the place they lived, you could see some differences in the colours and sizes of those dog's. Probably did the humans take the puppie's out of the nests and so by adapting to their new eviremont the cup's became domestic.  The humans discouverd that those first dog's protected their family and that was the first stap. Thanks to the many experiments with the domestic dogs and wild species.   This isolation from DNA was responsible that the domestic dog   lookes did change. These dogs could not survive in the wilderniss but as familydog he was exellent.  This was the ancester of our dogs now

This domestic dog had new capacity's and the humans tryed to develop those. The dogs who barkes a lot became the guardians of the houses, the fast dogs became the huntingdogs.  And this was than the base of the different breeds. Today we know more than 350 different breeds.  Trough the century's humans cept dog's for very different reasons: huntingdogs, sheepdog's, guardians, housedog's and there are places were the dogs are breed for their meat.  

SOME FACTS ABOUT WOLVES

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Can wolves sing?   No, they cannot. What you hear is that all the members of a pack howling. To warn intruders of  their  territory or to find lost members of the pack

How many species are there? There are many kinds of wild dog's called wolf, but they are wild dogs just the grey wolf (Canis Lupus) is the only real wolf

How fast can they run? They can run for about 65km/hour in short break outs, but they can trot for hours and hours till their prey gets tired and then the pack attack. In this trot they can go for big distances. ( 100km every night)

How big can the packts be? If there is enough food the pack can grow to 20 members

How many wolves are there in the wild?

I have to say that there are less wolves now than there were in 1998.  In Norway did many wolves found the death , here are the new numbers of the wolves in wild in Europe only.  I do not know the amount of wild wolves in the other continents, 

                                           New populationnumbers

The difference between 1 letter in a name? 

there is a wolfhound and a wolfShound:

The wolfhounds are the hybrids, the breeds between wild wolves and domestic dogs.  The other with the S in the name, these dogs are called that way because of the jobs they used to do.  It were wolf- hunters in the medieval periode.

That is the big difference

 Look at me. I am a nice animal !  If you press me you get into the photogallery of my brothers and    sisters

What can a wolf  do more than a dog?

everything. A wolf can do everything. And a dog not. Wolves are faster, stronger ,versaltile, they have more intelligence than a dog, . The brains of a wolf are 20% bigger than the brains of a dog. Most of the dogs are specialist in one skill. Hunting, tracking or killing. A wolf does it all.

RELATIVES of the dogs

In this family are different kinds of predators, many of them are not wel known as some of the cat-familypredators. Here are a few of that dog-family

Canis Latrans or the coyote

They live in North-Amerika. They can grow to 125cm and their weight goes to 23 kilo's. Another name for the coyote is prairiewolf. They often hunt in copples but sometimes alone.  They can run for 60 km / hour in persuit with their prey's. Often they are seen in the area of city's

Canis familiaris Dinog or in short the Dingo

They live in Australia. Their are not many things known about these wild dog's. It are probably domestic dogs who returned to the life in the wild. These dog's are usefull with the hunt for the overpopulation of rabbits but for the rest the Australian people hate these dog's. They think that it are the dingo's that kills the sheep.  It is a beautiful breed

Speothos Venaticus   or the bushdog

these dog's are small creatures about 80 cm high ans 6 kilo weight. They live in the wouds of the northern part of South-Amerika. It can swim very good and often eats fish. They hunt at night and in groups.

Cuon Alpinus or the Dhole

It lives in India and South-East Asia. it is also called the Red Dog of India. They hunt mainly on deers in groups their weight goes from 17 to 21 kilo. and they are about 90 cm , their tail is about 45 cm.

Fennecus Zerda or the Fennec Fox

This is the smallest of the fox family. But he has the biggest ears. They are about 15 cm tall. It are real desertdog's During the day they stay in their holes and come out when the night falls. They can get to 12 years of age. they weigh about 1-1.5 kilo and grow to 40 cm's. They live in the wild in North -Amerika. 

Than there are others of the foxfamily who belong to the relatives of the dog

  Alopex Lagopus or the Artic fox

In winter compleet white, during the summer grey-yellow and some of them are silverblue, 4.5-8 kilo's 60-100 cm's hight, you can find them in North-Europe and the articarea's of Northern Amerika

Atelocynus Microtis alias The Common Zorro

It is a fox. He moves like a cat but is a dogrelative. One of the biggest species 70-92 cm tail: 25-35 cm's One of his markings are his.uppereye-teeth: they are 6 mimileters long and visible outside his mouth. They live in the Tropical South-Amerika

Vulpes vulpes alias the Red Fox

Spread in Europe, Asia and North-west Africa. This is the most common fow there is. They hunt at night but are seen in daytime too.

And than there are the jackals       

Canis mesomelas  or the black-backed jackal

Central- and South Africa, they hunt small preys like newborn cups of bizons. weight 10 kilo   size: 90 cm tail: 30.35cm's.  They can reach the age of 12

Canis adustus  alias the Side-striped Jackal

They live mostly in South Africa, age: 12, size: 90cm's tail 40 cm's, weight: 12 kilo's. Copples stay together their entire life. When one dies the other stays alone. They hunt at night and sleep during the daytime

And than there are the wolves themselves.

Canis Rufus  or the red wolf

Sout-East of the U.S. Their is not much known of this species because it is an endangerd species. They hunt on rabbits and rats. It is known that this specie is a lot shorter than his grey brother. But the right size is unknown. His weight goes from 18 to 29 kilo's.

canis lupus  ot the grey wolf

size: 105-135 cm's, shouldershight: 95 cm's, tail 28-55 cm's weight: 27-67.5 kilo's. They can eat about 9 kilo meat a day.They live in Europe, Asia, East-Europe, The North of the U.S, In the U.S are program's for people to learn how to live near en togheter with wolves. So the wolves can comeback.This grey one is also on the list of the endangerd animals.