Our Animal Portrait today will be of a White Wolf.

This is one of the members of the White Wolf pack at a wolf sanctuary in West Yellowstone Montana. Actually it is a white phase of the Grey wolves (Canis lupus), also known as the timber wolf, true wolf or western wolf and are found throughout the west but mainly in the northern Rockies from Colorado to Montana and along the U.S. and Canadian border. These are a captive pack and due to trauma early in their lives they have been unable to be returned to the wild. They are kept in a large enclosure that replicates the habitat they would have occupied had things worked out differently.

They have been featured on the blog previously under a post titled http://www.bigshotsnow.com/fishing-wolves/  which shows their unusual behavior where they have developed their hunting skills on their own, so they are able to locate or hunt for Rainbow trout. The fish are introduced into a stream that runs through the enclosure and the wolves spend hours hunting and ultimately catching these trout. While not a totally satisfactory replacement for life in the wild it introduces some much need focus and activity that mimics what their behavior would have been had they been able to live out their lives in the wild, and reduces the boredom so often seen exhibited by captive animals. Obviously their prey would have been different but their hunting instincts are true to their nature.

The purpose of the Animal Portraits posts are to showcase animals in a portrait format that exhibits their characteristics and personality traits. Rather than just show them in a static pose. Each Animal Portrait attempts to capture an aspect of their personalities that may not often be seen.

Here we see one of the pack in a calculating pose where his thoughts may be something on the order of ” I see you. I know you. You have been my friend. So upon further consideration I have decided not to bite you or take away your fish, which you have caught fairly and is the second one you have caught today, while I personally have caught none so far, but I reserve judgment on whether I might do so at a later date.”

Other posts that have featured Animal Portraits are

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/animal-portraits/ Escalante Coyote

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/50-shades-of-grey/ Harbor Seal

http://www.bigshotsnow.com/animal-portraits-dazma-the-amur-leopard/ Amur Leopard

Enjoy.