Forget the malarkey about wolves howling at the moon. These animals care as much about the Earth's nightlight as metalheads think about "High School Musical. Canine experts have found no connection between the phases of the moon and wolf howling [source: Busch].
Wolves pipe up more often during the night because they're nocturnal. But why do they point their faces toward the moon and stars when they howl? It's all about acoustics since projecting their calls upward allows the sound to carry farther.
Today, wolf howling is one of the most distinct and well-studied animal vocalizations. The ancestors of domesticated dogs , wolves howl as a form of long-distance communication, conveying a range of information. Because of the high pitch and the suspension of notes, the sounds of wolf howls can carry as far as 6 miles 9.
Wolf howls serve as GPS systems , sing-alongs and fire alarms -- all rolled into one. In fact, the purpose of wolf howls isn't terribly different from the reasons humans raise their voices to the wind.
In general, the primary reasons why wolves howl include:. The frequency of howling increases during the evening and early dawn when wolves hunt [source: Lopez and Bauguess]. Howls punctuate the air more often during the wintertime breeding season, when wolves seek out mates [source: Lopez and Bauguess].
Since howls bear coding for a wolf's body size and health with the larger animals exhibiting deeper tones , males can exercise their pipes to attract females [source: Feldhamer et al]. Although we think of wolves howling alone, they frequently do so as a group.
These chorus howls involve members of a pack singing in unison at multiple pitches. Together, the chorus may include up to 12 related harmonies [source: Lopez and Bauguess]. Group howling can protect packs since the combination of harmonies tricks listeners into thinking there are more wolves present [source: Harrington ]. Or sometimes, they'll howl just for the fun of it. Alpha wolves, leaders of the pack, usually display a lower-pitched howl and will sound off more frequently than those with a more subservient social standing [source: Feldhamer et al].
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Skip to content. These low-frequency sounds have been heard at distances of nearly 10 miles away, although the presence of trees, mountains, and other geographic features can decrease that range. While wolves have been studied both in captivity and in the wild, scientists continue to learn about their communication and how hunting and habitat destruction by humans may be changing their behavior.
For now, these are the known reasons why wolves howl. Like many other species of animals, wolves use vocalizations to communicate. When wolves become separated, they will howl to locate the other members of their pack. Both individuals and entire packs may howl to find a missing member. The vocalization is also frequently used to locate missing pups or by adults to let the pups know that they are on their way home from foraging.
Research on wolf behavior has looked into whether howling to communicate location is harmful to wolves that are in danger of being detected and hunted by humans, but so far no connection has been found. Wolf howling between packs increases dramatically during mating season. When hormones are surging, wolves are more likely to show aggressive behavior towards members of other packs in order to defend their territory and the females in their pack.
Wolves' average summer home ranges span 72 square miles, and territorial howling serves as a warning to outsiders to keep their distance. According to a study by scientists at the Wolf Science Centre in Austria, wolves tend to howl more if they are separated from another wolf that they have a close relationship with. In the past, scientists had hypothesized that wolves howled as a stress response to being separated from pack members. However, the European researchers found that levels of a stress hormone called cortisol did not significantly increase in pack members when a wolf was taken away from them.
Instead, it seems that wolves howl when separated from another wolf simply to make contact with them and not because their absence is stressful.
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