Page 49 - World of Animals - Issue #41

BUILT TO SURVIVE:

THE ARCTIC

WOLF

Braving snow storms, traversing frozen terrain

and tracking down food in one of Earth’s most
desolate environments, Arctic wolves are nature’s

defenders of the north

Words Matt Ayres

Wolves are some of the most intelligent and successful of the more widespread grey wolf, these canines have
predators around, using their supreme brainpower and mastered the art of life in the Arctic tundra. They are
close-knit social structures to thrive as pack animals on resilient enough to stick out the toughest winters, smart
multiple continents. Yet many people don’t realise that the enough to track down and kill impressively large prey, and
empire of the wolf stretches into territory that most animals sociable enough to live among their fellow wolves in small,
don’t dare to enter, let alone live in. complex communities.
The Arctic Circle is no playground. In this frozen polar There are still mysteries about the Arctic wolf that
wasteland, ferocious blizzards rage and the darkness of humans haven’t been able to solve. How did they first
night takes hold for months on end. Indeed, the Arctic arrive in such an isolated world, and why were their grey
is one of the only places on Earth where humans rarely wolf ancestors driven into the coldest part of the Northern
venture. The animals that live here may have to endure Hemisphere? Are the two wolves ultimately the same
the deadliest weather nature is capable of, but they are animals living in different climates, or should we consider
blessed with a separation from mankind that keeps their the hardy Arctic wolf as its own unique subspecies?
world blissfully untouched by the harmful encroachment And how were these canines able to bounce back from
of urbanisation. extinction in eastern Greenland, reclaiming a territory
In the absence of people, Arctic wolves have become that was unjustly taken from them? The answers all lie
the rulers of the permanently frozen north. A subspecies northward. Do you dare to run with the wolves?

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