“I feel so sad that they are all alone out there!”
Many folks tell us they are both saddened and shocked that some wolves would be by themselves (i.e., lone wolves) for an extended period. However, since being a lone wolf is a very normal part of being a wolf, we figured a post on the topic was in order!
We estimate that 20% of the wolf population in our area is made up of lone wolves, which is similar to estimates from many other places where >10-15% of the population are lone wolves.
The idea that lone wolves are sad and lonely is a good example of putting human emotions onto animals that lead vastly different lives than us.
To understand why, it's important to understand why most lone wolves are indeed “alone”. While some wolves become loners due to the death of a mate or a parent, the vast majority of lone wolves are young individuals (1-2 years old) that choose to leave their pack.
In fact, most young wolves will leave their pack at some point, and therefore, most wolves who live to old age will have been lone wolves for some part of their life.
But why do these young wolves leave? Often people think of wolf packs as warm, almost idyllic families where all members just love and care for each to death, are endlessly loyal to one another, and so on. Of course, this is how they are sometimes portrayed in media and on social media.
Wolves do, of course, have strong social bonds and relationships with each other. However, there is also intense competition within wolf packs, especially for food because food is generally not in excess. And intense competition entails some pack members being very unfriendly to others.
Indeed, the reason why many young wolves in our area disperse is because their parents or other pack members reduce their access to food via aggression (e.g., parents physically preventing their 1-2 year old offspring from feeding on a kill). Thus, these young wolves decide that leaving is a better option than staying.
Much of this aggression, at least from the parents, is to ensure that their new litter of pups (i.e., wolves <1 year old) have sufficient access to food. Since a kill can only feed so many wolves, the parents ensure their youngest offspring get food, which often means they are aggressive to their older (1-2 yr old) offspring and prevent them from feeding to some extent.
In turn, these younger wolves, because of the competition and aggression surrounding food resources, decide that the grass is greener elsewhere, and leave the pack.
Once a wolf is a loner, it will often wander extensively looking for a mate and territory to either take over or settle down in (if unoccupied). Sometimes lone wolves will be by themselves for just a few months and sometimes it is for several years.
Can we really conclude that these wolves are “sad” or “lonely”? Not really. Sure, it is possible they could feel this way. However, by that same token, they might be totally happy to be by themselves where they are not being harassed by family members, or in strong competition for food.
Further, if lone wolves were “lonely", they wouldn’t have to look that hard for company.
Indeed, with wandering lone wolves making up 20% of the population, it is clear that lone wolves are bumping into one another all the time, and yet in many instances, they do not get together and start a pack.
For example, we collared a lone female wolf this past summer. In mid-fall, she spent time hanging out with another collared lone male wolf in our area. But after a few days, they split for some reason.
Then about a month later, she started traveling for about 2 days with another collared lone male before they also split.
All three of these wolves, both males and the female, are still alone as of today.
Clearly, if it these wolves were just desperate for companionship, they could find it pretty quickly. But there is obviously much more going on than that, and wolves are not willing to just shack up with any other loner they come across.
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