Wild Canines

this topic is meant to include all wild canines including wolves, coyotes, hyenas, feral domestic dogs, dingos, etc. i am a big time wolf lover, as if you couldn't tell! i have several links of good information on the wolf.

Your very own topic not in Screwed or Babes! Imagine that?! Of course, you are a four-wolf fold, are you not, and you have your very own Alpha Wolf? Could we see a picture of him?!

al intra's wolf site: Wolves

Nice Wolfies, but no Midnight Wolf and no Alpha Wolf (or are you the ones in those neat paintings where they are part of the background?!)

you got it! *grin* am really too shy to get my pic made and to have it plastered all over the internet....

There's a pack of wild dogs howling some nights in the woods by my Cedar Creek house. They really get going.

feral dogs...not that uncommon though less heard of in cities.

When I visited Southern California last year for 4 months, the room we slept in looked out on undeveloped parkland (yes, there still is some!) and each night the coyotes would sing. The first few times they were close and had made a kill so they were especially exhuberant. Man...I sat up in bed with the sheet tucked between my chin and knees and stared boggle-eyed into the inky darkness. It was a blood-chilling sound that took me about the 4 months to appreciate without shaking!

haha! at ft riley, kansas, a few of the houses in the housing area had back yards that attached to some undeveloped land (for hunting). a few of the families that lived there left raw chicken for the coyotes. we saw them all the time running around in the field.

They make the most amazing yipping noises when they have a kill - just like little humans when they are excited! I think they are neat - but they always look so forlorn in the daytime. I guess nighttime is REALLY their time to Howl!

i always felt bad for the coyotes. they seemed like underdogs to me. (nevermind my pun). and then i learned that wolves were as well. didn't really know about the persecution they endure until i started reading and researching. doesn't help that fairytales use wolves as the bad guys. i don't know if hyenas are in the canine family but they don't really seem like cats, although they could be. i saw an interesting documentary about them on discovery (my fave channel). they laugh out of nervousness! i'll do some more checking on them and give you a few more links for my fave wolf sites!

Indeed, Hyenas are Canines...they are very pack oriented and alpha status for male and female leaders. I agree that for the most part, wolves have had lousy PR.

got an answer on the hyena. according to the following url, hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs and really belong in their own family. it also said that they're closest to meercats and such. here's the link: http://www.csulb.edu/~persepha/hyena.html

marcia, you slipped me *hugs*

k, here's a wolf website i visit a lot! http://www.wolves-on-web.com/

Not only did I slip you - I had the incorrect answer - they must have reclassified hyenas. I was sure...but I love meercats. They are adorable to the extreme! *hugs* returning...*smile*

This will not endanger you, will it Wolfie??? Hunting for Wolf-Dog Hybrids OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian hunters set out on Monday to kill four wolf-dog hybrids in an unprecedented step to protect Scandinavia's endangered pure-bred wolves. ``We'll shoot to kill,'' Svein Nic Norberg, one of eight people involved in the hunt, told Reuters via mobile phone from a forest in southeast Norway. ``We have an extremely difficult task ahead of us. It could take weeks or even months.'' Norwegian authorities, who have spent recent years trying to reintroduce wolves after they died out in Norway in the 1940s, ordered the hunt after genetic testing of a cub killed by a car showed it was a mixture of wolf and dog. Scientists fear that four other cubs from the same litter, born in May 1999, could grow up to breed and wreck the gene pool of Norwegian wolves. The hunt has support from environmentalists who see it as a way to protect a stock of about 20 pure wolves. Norberg, a spokesman for the Directorate for Nature Management, said his team had located three of the hybrids in Oestfold county, in woods near the Swedish border, together with their pure-bred wolf mother and a new pure wolf mate. ``What is complicating the hunt is that we have to be extremely careful not to hurt the adult animals they are fully protected,'' Norberg said. A lack of snow in the area made it difficult to monitor the tracks. ``They move around a lot. They can easily go 200 kilometers (125 miles) in 24 hours,'' he said. The last of the four hybrid cubs was wandering around alone in the north of the county, apparently lost, Norberg said. The dog father of the hybrids has not been identified.

not this wolfie. it hurts my feelings but i understand why they're doing it.

Yeah, I know...I worried and worried about posting that article, but decided pure wolfies are important to save...so I posted it!

Werewolf Lore Do werewolves lurk among us? Thanks to movies and childhood stories, just about everyone knows what a werewolf is. But did you know that the word "werewolf" is Old English for "man-wolf"? Just in case you don't quite remember, a werewolf is defined as a man who can transform himself into a werewolf. In the Middle Ages, European peasants believed that these man-wolves would go out hunting for food (children were reputedly the morsel of choice for these predators) during the full moon. Bandits were the only ones to have actually preyed on the fears of peasants - they clothed themselves in wolf skins to inspire fear. Werewolf lore is evident in many parts of the world - and throughout the ages. From ancient Greece to (generally isolated regions of the world) today, folklore still exists about these man-wolves. More tomorrow!

Do Werewolves Lurk Among Us? According to psychologists, people who believe that they transform into werewolves have a mental disorder called lycanthropy. In this disorder, one thinks he or she can transform into a wolf or other animal, depending on the region of the world in which he or she lives. In general, people who suffer from this disorder believe that they transform into the most powerful and feared animal that lives in their part of the world. But the perceived 'ability' to transform one's self into an animal has great spiritual implications in many religions. Is this simply just a mental disorder - or are there times when chosen people experience a transformation into an animal form?