This is a story I'm writing on the WolfQuest Forums, but I've decided to post it on here as well so you guys can read it all, too.
Hope you enjoy it. c:
Siberia, a region in Russia, a big part of it a federal district. In summers this is a beautiful place, with different landscapes; steppes, grasslands, pine tree forests, birch forest, mountains, polar region, Siberia is known for its varying sceneries.
During the winter it can get colder than -60 °C, which the mountain tops covered in snow and ice, just as the lakes and the forest below. In spring these terrible temperatures rise again and young animals get born. Trees will get their leaves again, and flowers will bloom.
When summer arrives the temperatures can rise even higher, more than 30 °C. During the evening fog will surround the rivers, lakes and forests. Once autumn has begun, leaves are getting different colors of brown, just before they let go of their branches. In this time of the year a few animals who have their hibernation will go search for food so they can survive the next winter.
Siberia has, besides the different sceneries, also a lot of different species of animals.
In Siberia there can be found Siberian Wapitis, Siberian Ibexes, grizzly bears, elk, wild boar, deer, chipmunks, lynxes and seagulls and freshwater seals in the Baikal lake, one of the most popular lakes in Siberia. But of course, there are much more animals to name. One of these special animals we’re going to talk about are the wolves.
The wolf (Canis lupus) is a mammal that is a member of the canidae family. The wolf is a carnivore, which means their diet exists out of meat. This mammal is also known as the ancestor of the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), the human’s ‘best friend’.
The fleshy diet of these animals exist out of different kind of prey. Wolves often hunt prey like elk, deer and wild boar, but they also hunt small creatures like mice and hares, or birds, and much more other creatures. Sometimes when there’s no meat around, wolves also tend to eat fish.
Wolves have a head-body length from 1m to 1,5m and their tail can be 30 to 50cm long. The shoulder height of this mammal can be 65cm up to 80cm long.
Female wolves appear 10% smaller compared to males when it comes to body size, and so to weight. A male wolf can weigh between 20 to 80kg, while the average weigh a female is 18kg, up to 50kg.
A wolf’s teeth exist out of forty-two teeth, the canines of this animal are sharp, strong and around 2,5cm long. With these teeth wolves can bite through an elk’s leg bone with one strong, single bite.
Wolves don’t chew their food but use their teeth to rip off the flesh, to swallow it in pieces.
The most common color of a wolf’s coat is brown with different shades of grey and with white or creamy colors around the snout and on the chest, going down the belly.
But wolves’ coats can vary from white or black to a blond color, to even different shades of reddish-brown, depending on the species of the wolf, or where the wolf lives.
A wolf’s fur is long during the winter, to protect the animal from the cold. This way these creatures can survive terrible temperatures from lower than -40 °C During spring and summer they lose most of their long hairs because of the rising temperatures.
Wolves are awake around the day and evening, but sometimes end up hunting during the night as well. They can travel up to 50 or 60km a day, sometimes even more when it’s about a dispersal wolf.
Wolves are adults when they reach the age of two years old, some wolves around this age leave their birth pack to search for their own mate, to start their own pack.
A pack of wolves mostly exists put of a male and female, the dominant pair. The other wolves that live in the same pack are their (adult) offspring, but sometimes stranger wolves are accepted into these packs as well. A pack can have five or six wolves, but there also have been packs that existed out of more than twenty wolves. Wolves can have a litter from three to six pups.
A packs’ territory can be around the 200km², up to 2000km², but there have also been territories around which were even larger.
The wolf we’re going to track down is a male European wolf (Canis lupus lupus) from the age of two. He has a sleek body with a short, rough coat and pointy ears. his legs are long and ‘twiggy’, making the male look taller than he actually is.
His coat is a light russet color with streaks of grey on his back, on his side and on his neck going to the top of his head. There’s some dark grey on his tailtip as well. Around his muzzle there’s a cream color. This same color goes down his chest, along his belly. His eyes are a caramel brown.
This male European wolf is a dispersal; he left his birth pack to look for his own territory and mate, so he could start his own pack.
This male is known as Sibír, Russian for Siberia, as this is the land where the wolf was born and still lives.
Hope you enjoy it. c:
____________________________________________________________________
Wonders of Siberia
To Lake Baikal
Prologue
Siberia, a region in Russia, a big part of it a federal district. In summers this is a beautiful place, with different landscapes; steppes, grasslands, pine tree forests, birch forest, mountains, polar region, Siberia is known for its varying sceneries.
During the winter it can get colder than -60 °C, which the mountain tops covered in snow and ice, just as the lakes and the forest below. In spring these terrible temperatures rise again and young animals get born. Trees will get their leaves again, and flowers will bloom.
When summer arrives the temperatures can rise even higher, more than 30 °C. During the evening fog will surround the rivers, lakes and forests. Once autumn has begun, leaves are getting different colors of brown, just before they let go of their branches. In this time of the year a few animals who have their hibernation will go search for food so they can survive the next winter.
Siberia has, besides the different sceneries, also a lot of different species of animals.
In Siberia there can be found Siberian Wapitis, Siberian Ibexes, grizzly bears, elk, wild boar, deer, chipmunks, lynxes and seagulls and freshwater seals in the Baikal lake, one of the most popular lakes in Siberia. But of course, there are much more animals to name. One of these special animals we’re going to talk about are the wolves.
The wolf (Canis lupus) is a mammal that is a member of the canidae family. The wolf is a carnivore, which means their diet exists out of meat. This mammal is also known as the ancestor of the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), the human’s ‘best friend’.
The fleshy diet of these animals exist out of different kind of prey. Wolves often hunt prey like elk, deer and wild boar, but they also hunt small creatures like mice and hares, or birds, and much more other creatures. Sometimes when there’s no meat around, wolves also tend to eat fish.
Wolves have a head-body length from 1m to 1,5m and their tail can be 30 to 50cm long. The shoulder height of this mammal can be 65cm up to 80cm long.
Female wolves appear 10% smaller compared to males when it comes to body size, and so to weight. A male wolf can weigh between 20 to 80kg, while the average weigh a female is 18kg, up to 50kg.
A wolf’s teeth exist out of forty-two teeth, the canines of this animal are sharp, strong and around 2,5cm long. With these teeth wolves can bite through an elk’s leg bone with one strong, single bite.
Wolves don’t chew their food but use their teeth to rip off the flesh, to swallow it in pieces.
The most common color of a wolf’s coat is brown with different shades of grey and with white or creamy colors around the snout and on the chest, going down the belly.
But wolves’ coats can vary from white or black to a blond color, to even different shades of reddish-brown, depending on the species of the wolf, or where the wolf lives.
A wolf’s fur is long during the winter, to protect the animal from the cold. This way these creatures can survive terrible temperatures from lower than -40 °C During spring and summer they lose most of their long hairs because of the rising temperatures.
Wolves are awake around the day and evening, but sometimes end up hunting during the night as well. They can travel up to 50 or 60km a day, sometimes even more when it’s about a dispersal wolf.
Wolves are adults when they reach the age of two years old, some wolves around this age leave their birth pack to search for their own mate, to start their own pack.
A pack of wolves mostly exists put of a male and female, the dominant pair. The other wolves that live in the same pack are their (adult) offspring, but sometimes stranger wolves are accepted into these packs as well. A pack can have five or six wolves, but there also have been packs that existed out of more than twenty wolves. Wolves can have a litter from three to six pups.
A packs’ territory can be around the 200km², up to 2000km², but there have also been territories around which were even larger.
The wolf we’re going to track down is a male European wolf (Canis lupus lupus) from the age of two. He has a sleek body with a short, rough coat and pointy ears. his legs are long and ‘twiggy’, making the male look taller than he actually is.
His coat is a light russet color with streaks of grey on his back, on his side and on his neck going to the top of his head. There’s some dark grey on his tailtip as well. Around his muzzle there’s a cream color. This same color goes down his chest, along his belly. His eyes are a caramel brown.
This male European wolf is a dispersal; he left his birth pack to look for his own territory and mate, so he could start his own pack.
This male is known as Sibír, Russian for Siberia, as this is the land where the wolf was born and still lives.