Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger on Friday July 11, 1997

Howling

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     Ah, howling, it's music to my ears. The only thing better than a group or chorus howl is a solo howl. A solo howl could be equated to what some of you humans do when you sing in the shower. From some of the sounds I can hear coming from the showers in Silver Plume, it's a good thing that the singer is inside a building and that the sound of the shower drowns out most of that noise. I have extremely good hearing and some nights those shower serenades can drive me nuts, even with all four paws stuck in my ears.

     Many of you have heard me howl. Sometimes I do it just for pure enjoyment but other times I have a message to send. If I see Cody, the lab that lives two doors down, going up to get the mail, I will often howl to invite her to come over and play. Other times I howl because I am sad. This happens when some of my favorite human friends stop by the Gallery to play with me. When it's time for them to leave I put my paw around their leg and ask if they could stay longer. After I watch them go out the front door I run up on my favorite rock and watch over the fence as they drive away. This is when I do my mournful, lonely howl.

     Out in the wild, if you hear a lone wolf howling, it could mean a couple of different things. If a wolf is separated from the pack, a howl will identify him and a return howl will let him know where the rest of the pack is located. If a wolf has made a kill, it will howl to alert the other pack members that might be lagging behind or who had gotten separated due to the maneuver of the hunt. Even though the territory of the wolf is quite large, a wolf separated from the pack can hear another wolf's howl from four up to six miles away.

     Ranging in size anywhere from thirty to eight hundred square miles, a pack will do whatever it needs to do to defend its territory, even to the point of when necessary, attacking and killing intruders from other packs if it finds them in their home turf. Fortunately we wolves are smart enough to realize that there is a far more efficient and a lot less dangerous way to defend our territory. We do this by scent marking and by howling. Both actions advertise to neighboring packs and lone wolves that the territory is occupied. Scent marking is done by urinating and defecating in highly visible places such as along main trails, tree stumps, and also at kill sites. These scent posts are repeatedly marked and no wolf in its right mind will trespass into another's area.

     Scent marking is long lasting and lets others know that the pack has been through this area. Howling, on the other hand, lets others know where the pack is at any given time. It is a temporary warning method that gives notice to other wolves that they may be approaching an area that they shouldn't be in. These vocalizations will prevent encounters that may cause injury or even death to the unaware trespasser. In future articles I will discuss other forms of language that we wolves use to communicate. Hope you all are having a great summer. See you next week.

Cheyenne