Wolves are related in
little-understood ways to animals they do not hunt.
Some, like the coyote and lynx, move out of the
immediate area when wolves move in. Others - the fox,
the raven, the wolverine - feed off the carrion
wolves provide. Wolves in turn take advantage of
abandoned fox burrows and other creature's homes for
their dens, raid fox caches, and feed on an
occasional bear's kill.
Wolves have a curious dependency
on caribou to act as snowplows. It seems clear that
tundra wolves do not follow caribou in winter solely
to feed on them but because the herds open the way
and pack the snow down. Wolves could not move through
the deep snows of the northern forests without these
highways. They also take advantage of moose trails in
such snows.
The wolf seems to have few relationships with other
animals that could be termed purely social, though he
apparently takes pleasure in the company of ravens.
The raven, with a range almost as extensive as the
wolf's, one that includes even the tundra, commonly
follows hunting wolves to feed on the remains of a
kill. In winter, when tracks are visible from the
air, ravens will follow the trail of a wolf pack in
hopes of finding a carcass. They roost in neighboring
trees or hop about eating bloody snow while the
wolves eat, approaching the carcass when the wolves
haven finished. But the relationship betweeen the two
is deeper than this, as is revealed in the following
incident. A traveling pack stopped to rest and four
or five ravens who were tagging along began to pester
them.
As Mech writes in The Wolf:
"The birds would dive at a wolf's head or tail
and the wolf would duck and then leap at them.
Sometimes the ravens chased the wolves, flying just
above their heads, and once, a raven waddled up to a
resting wolf, pecked at its tail, and jumped aside as
the wolf snapped at it. When the wolf retaliated by
stalking the raven, the bird allowed it within a foot
before arising. Then it landed a few feet beyond the
wolf, and repeated the prank.
"It appears that the wolf and the raven have
reached an adjustment in their relationships such
that each creature is rewarded in some way by the
presence of the other and that each is fully aware of
the other's capabilities. Both species are extremely
social, so they must possess the psychological
mechanisms necessary for forming social attachments.
Perhaps in some way individuals of each species have
included members of the other in their social group
and have formed bonds with them."
The wolf may have similar relationships with other
creatures. People have heard loons and barred owls
responding to wolf howls, and vice versa.
Excerpt from OF WOLVES AND MEN,
Barry Holstun Lopez
