Animals that start with W

Wolf

Step into the wild world of wolves and learn all about their playful personalities and fascinating habits with our fun facts for kids. Join Albert as he explores these amazing wolf facts for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Click on the images to hear silly sounds and then read about fun wolf facts like what do wolves look like?, what sound do wolves make?, how big are wolves?, what do wolves eat?, where do wolves live?, and more fun facts about wolves!

What do wolves look like?

Wolves are mammals. This means that they are warm-blooded, feed their babies milk and have fur.

Wolves are also dogs. The dogs that we keep as pets once came from wolves.

Does your dog look like a wolf? They have long fur, 4 legs, a tail, pointy ears and a long snout.

Some dogs have been made to look different from wolves. Some don’t have tails or long snouts. Some don’t have long fur or pointy ears. But dogs like German Shepherds and Huskies still look very similar to wolves.

What sound do wolves make?

Click the the image to hear the sound!

Wolves make the same sound as pet dogs.

Wolves can growl, whimper, whine and bark. They are most famous for howling. Can you howl like a wolf?

How big are wolves?

There are different species of wolf in the world. The gray wolf is the largest.

A male gray wolf can grow up to 6.6 feet (2 meters) long, including the tail. When they stand on all fours, their shoulder height is about 30 inches (76 centimeters) tall.

The gray wolf is similar in size to Great Dane dog, which is as long as a park bench that seats three people!

What do wolves eat?

Wolves are mostly carnivores. This means they mainly eat meat.

A pack (or group) of wolves hunt together and catch animals as big as moose and bison.

They also hunt smaller animals like deer, lizards, rabbits and fish.

When they can’t find any animals to hunt, wolves will occasionally eat fruits and berries.

Where do wolves live?

There are lots of different types of wolves that live in many places across the world.

They like places that are wild and are far away from people.

They live in forests, wetlands, open grasslands, deserts, and on mountains.

More fun facts about wolves for kids

A wolf’s howl can be heard up to 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Wolves don’t use telephones, so they howl to talk to each other from far away.
Female and male wolves (mommy and daddy wolves) stay together for their whole life. This is called monogamy.
Wolves can run up to 38 mph (61 kph)! That’s as fast as your car! This is only when they are sprinting as fast as they can. The wolf mostly trots along at a gentle pace for many hours when hunting.
Wolves pee and poo to mark their territories. This tells other wolves where they live and tells them to stay away.
Wolves are very social animals. This means that they like to live together. They communicate with other wolves in their pack. Each pack has an alpha male and an alpha female – these are the 2 wolves in charge of all the others.
Wolves have two layers of fur which help them to keep warm in freezing weather.

Sources: Wikipedia, Live Science, Creative Commons, Britannica.com and Freesound.org