Wolf (Canis lupus)

[Wolverine]

(12-07-2018, 06:15 PM)Sanju Wrote:

In the Negev Desert of Israel, in 1994, Vladimir Dinets - a tracker and zoologist - discovered tracks of a striped hyena, Hyaena hyaena, overlapping with those of either Arabian (Canis lupus arabs) or Indian (C. l. pallipes) wolves, both of which are subspecies of the grey wolf.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Indian wolf, which may have been the subspecies in question

Further examination of the tracks indicated that the three wolves and the hyena were walking together, at the same time. This discovery was hugely surprising for Dinets, but his zoological colleagues - who knew little about conventional tracking - were unconvinced.

Four years later, in the same area as that of the tracks, the Israeli zoologist Benjamin Eligulashvili observed a pack of seven wolves traveling with a single striped hyena, who was right in the middle of the group. These discoveries indicate that the two species cooperate in order to hunt. this is considered as one of the type of symbiotic association or inter specific relationship or interaction for the mutual benefits and survival of both species in unforgiving harsh environment. these wolves were also observed hunting and sharing meat with hyena peacefully and not with much violence. wolves were also observed as facultative omnivores by eating grapes (mainly for water needs) in nocturnal period by raiding on protected negev desert park surrounding fields or farms. episode was telecasted in sony bbc earth. feel alive lol.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The striped hyena, Hyaena hyaena
Thinking about it further, it makes sense. The Negev Desert is an extremely hostile and arid environment, and the two species have their respective strengths - the striped hyenas have a superior sense of smell and bite force, while the wolves are better at hunting and tracking down large prey.

In this case, the wolves and hyenas depend on each other in order to survive and reproduce better than their non-cooperative counterparts, but they’re not interdependent to the degree that they couldn’t survive without each other.
https://qr.ae/TUtAKa
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160324-...ith-wolves

Interesting videos Sanju.
These smallish tropical wolves, more especially Arabian wolves look a bit funny in comparison with their large and mighty relatives from the northern latitudes, something like "under-wolves" . Basically they have almost the size of Canadian coyotes....  , average weight of male Arab is ar. 20 kg, while female could be even 16 kg... Since I'm from Europe for me "wolf" mean a big, powerful, long-haired apex predator hunting in the snowy landscapes. Since tropical wolves evolved and existed for long time in the surrounding of gigantic super-predators as lions and tigers their size was probably additionally pressed down by the big cats. Reply