Animal Facts

Canadian Timber Wolves
Longleat’s pack of Canadian Timber Wolves are perfectly at home in the half-light of their densely wooded enclosure.

A pack consists of the dominant Alpha male and Alpha female and their offspring. Subordinate females do not mate but act as ‘helpers’ with cubs and catching prey.
The Longleat wolf pack have had many litters of pups over the years - and this is especially good when you consider that Longleat played tapes of wild Canadian Timber Wolves in a bid to encourage a lower ranking female to replace the old alpha female to ensure the long-term breeding success of the pack.

Longleat’s Head Warden, Keith Harris explains “The dominant female (alpha wolf) had difficulties giving birth and was subsequently spayed – she was unable to breed. Wolf packs have a very strict hierarchy. If this problem had occurred in the wild, the original alpha would most likely have died and the pack would have naturally elected a new alpha female. By encouraging the wolf pack to bond using this special ‘howling’ technique, we encouraged the pack to replace the old alpha female with a younger lower-ranking female, whilst still enabling the older wolf to remain in the pack but in a lower ranking position.”

The birth of the three Canadian Timber Wolf pups followed a year later by a further seven pups indicates that this programme has been a success. Longleat will, however, continue to monitor the wolves to ensure the long-term future and success of the pack.