They are the most courageous and curious wolves in the world,
First contact with humans,
You can incorporate people into your own ethnic group.
They're all snow-white, and they're beautiful.
Living in the Arctic region with the worst ecological environment,
Coldness and ferocity are their only weapons,
But family and family are also the only reason for them to live,
They are the snow wolf family that lives in the Arctic.
The Arctic Snow Wolf is very different from his distant southern relatives.
There is not much information about them in the world at present.
This is mainly because the area where they live is too remote,
Mostly concentrated in the Arctic Circle,
Temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius throughout the year,
The temperature in the coldest month can even be as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius,
There is still a large part of the year in the middle of the polar night,
Coupled with widespread drought,
The living environment of this area can be imagined,
But these poor conditions add up to a human invasion.
This may also be a great blessing for the Snow Wolf Family,
The ethnic structure of the Arctic snow wolf is very similar to that of nomadic peoples,
In a large range of snow wolf populations,
There are countless small groups scattered around the stars,
Each small group has only six or eight members,
And then he took charge of a territory of hundreds of square kilometers,
That's the size of a county.
We can imagine,
Six or seven men have the territory of a county,
How extravagant it is,
But the truth is,
Because food sources are extremely scarce,
The territory of this county is only enough to support the family of six.
Snow wolves also need to travel about 80 kilometers a day to find food.
and the need for regular migration,
This is also somewhat similar to the survival habits of nomadic peoples.
These factors, in turn, lead to a clear power gap between each small ethnic group.
No wolf can enter the sphere of influence of others at will.
Because just add a wolf,
The ecological balance of the area may be disrupted,
Indigenous peoples are at risk of starvation.
Although the Arctic snow wolf does not understand these sociological truths,
But millions of years of evolution have engraved this knowledge of survival deeply in their genes.
The protection of territory becomes conditioned.
At the same time, arctic snow wolves rarely act alone.
This is partly because,
Their predation requires the cooperation of their compatriots,
On the other hand
Snow Wolf has a strong sense of family responsibility,
This sense of responsibility is perhaps stronger than that of some humans.
British photographer Gordon in the spring of 2013,
Entered the territory of the Arctic Snow Wolf,
The first Snow Wolf family he came into contact with was the Luna family.
Being able to photograph wild wolves up close in the wild,
This is almost impossible in the South,
Our experience in daily life proves that
But Gordon did.
Or maybe snow wolf did it.
In the face of such a rare creature as human beings,
Luna's family showed great tolerance and curiosity,
They stood not far away and looked at Gordon curiously,
The eldest son of the family, the scruffy ghost,
Even slowly approaching Gordon,
Collect Gordon's body odor with your nose,
And took Gordon's chair,
Pee on his backpack.
At this point,
Luna's family basically accepted him,
Such hospitality,
This is extremely difficult to imagine even in human society.
After all, if a stranger shows up in your house one day,
Even if you don't call the police, you have to respond for many days.
The hospitality of luna's family gave Gordon a lot of opportunities,
It also allows us to learn more about our northern neighbor.
This spring,
Hostess Luna gave birth to three new members,
This means that adult wolves in small groups hunt more prey.
Fortunately, the food in the spring and summer is relatively rich,
In particular, the number of rabbits is particularly large,
And that's what the wolves eat.
But as the cubs grow up,
Rabbit meat has been unable to meet the development of small families,
They have to catch a bigger prey,
That is, the musk ox that is endemic to the Arctic,
They're huge.
Fat flesh,
One can sustain a small family's consumption for a week.
But as with his return,
The predation difficulty of musk oxen is also enormous,
They stood in groups,
Always vigilant against all threats,
Luna's family can only be surrounded by far away,
Constantly changing positions, looking for breakthroughs,
Both sides are tense,
suddenly
An adult snow wolf has lost patience,
Hastily attacking a single musk ox,
But the rest of the musk ox soon rushed over,
The tall body and dark horns bring a strong sense of oppression,
The snow wolf can only give up for a while,
Quickly pull away.
But Luna's family was still hanging around the cattle not far away,
The cattle began to stir,
They began to migrate far away,
But Luna's family didn't give up.
They continued to follow the herd,
Like a ranger on the prairie,
Take advantage of amazing endurance and speed,
Constantly harassing the cattle.
This chase usually lasts all day,
The distance is more than 100 kilometers,
In the end, there will always be a musk ox that can't stand the harassment and is left behind,
Become the rations of the wolves,
Luna's family is no exception,
They caught an old musk ox this time.
When the film crew found out,
The musk ox has been almost eaten,
But because the little wolf is not enough to migrate long distances,
So the hostess Luna and his eldest daughter must be responsible for bringing the food back to the wolf's den,
Feed the little wolf,
Such a round trip would take six hours.
But Luna and her eldest daughter didn't slack off at all,
The care of the younger members is their tradition,
Even in the autumn when food is extremely scarce,
Adult male snow wolves after each hunt,
Or will it leave food for the young wolf,
It's their tradition.
It is also the only motivation for them to live.