Co-author Irina Rotenko
Within the e-book on the gray wolf replica biology (Sidorovich & Rotenko, 2019) we instructed about a number of patterns of wolf pack multi-breeding, which we documented in Naliboki Forest and Paazierre Forest in Belarus over the last 20 years. The primary distinctive characteristic in wolf pack multi-breeding is what number of large grownup males, which maybe equally ranked, participate in a breeding group of wolves. If a male leads a breeding group, usually it is just a powerful male within the breeding group. Such a bunch of breeders might embrace two or three breeding females.
Fairly reverse, if a feminine leads a breeding group, there could also be two and even three large males within the breeding group. For example, within the given predominant mannequin pack main by Torn Ear feminine there have been three large males within the breeding group throughout replica season of 2020 and two large males within the breeding group throughout replica season of 2021. Chances are you’ll learn concerning the Torn Ear pack in 4 earlier posts: (1); (2); (3); (4).
In the course of the winter 2021-2022 the Torn Ear feminine had disappeared. Plausibly she was killed by hunters. Afterwards one of many large males (simply recognisable; we referred to as him Pryhazhun) grew to become main this pack, which consisted of another grownup male and two grownup females. Necessary to say that not one of the pups of the replica interval of 2021 survived until December 2021. Main of the pack by Pryhazhun was evident from the numbers of footages that we made with camera-traps.
Within the late January 2022 one other large male left the pack, and Pryhazhun mated with each the females. These three wolves (Pryhazhun and his two females) stayed collectively afterwards. Within the late March one of many feminine gave delivery in a burrow-den. Within the twentieth of April there have been at the least three pups along with her. One other simply recognisable feminine (we referred to as Pliamistaja) gave delivery within the late April on the gap round 1.8 km from the den of the primary feminine, and within the mid-Could Pliamistaja had 4 pups of about 3 weeks previous in her burrow-den. Pryhazhun served for each breeding females. Pliamistaja visited denning space and dens of one other breeding feminine. All of the three wolves (Pryhazhun and his two females) have been numerically registered strolling collectively in April and Could.
Within the under footage you will notice making ready of a number of dens by pregnant feminine wolf Pliamistaja. A complete, at the least 34 such ready dens in sorts of a burrow or a cavity or solely a pit there have been discovered within the denning space of the wolf breeders. You see one of many precise burrow-den of Pliamistaja. That’s outlier of badgers that was enlarged by the breeding wolves. The litter was inside this burrow 4-6 days, at the least.