Provided below are a list of words or phrases to guide your research.
- Teamwork and cooperation
- Alpha and omega
- Family devotion
- Group loyalty - Hierarchy, or status in society
- Child (pup) rearing
- Sharing of wealth (food)
After completing your research, you and your research team must create a comparison-and-contrast chart showing what you have learned from your research about the similarities and differences between a wolf pack and a human social group.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Discuss how wolves have been portrayed in literature and mythology. How might these portraits have affected our current beliefs about wolves?
2. Compare and contrast the wolf pack family and community with the human family and community. What characteristics do they have in common, and how do they differ?
3. Compare and contrast the characteristics of wolf pups and dog pups. What observable traits of the wolf pups are indicators of adult wolf behavior? Do wolf pups make good pets? What about hybrid pups (half wolf and half dog)?
4. Describe how positions may change in a wolf pack hierarchy. Compare this to human behavior. Consider family, school, and work situations.
5. Analyze the impact the near destruction of wolf populations in North America has had on its prey populations (e.g., deer, elk, antelope), and other related species in their environment. (For example, in Yellowstone National Park, the removal of wolves has increased the elk, antelope, and deer populations, increasing the destruction of vegetation and habitat—thereby decreasing other herbivorous species such as beaver and rabbit. [source: Playing God in Yellowstone by Alston Chase, 1987]).
6. How do humans decide whether and how to reestablish wolf populations in the wild?
- Teamwork and cooperation
- Alpha and omega
- Family devotion
- Group loyalty - Hierarchy, or status in society
- Child (pup) rearing
- Sharing of wealth (food)
After completing your research, you and your research team must create a comparison-and-contrast chart showing what you have learned from your research about the similarities and differences between a wolf pack and a human social group.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Discuss how wolves have been portrayed in literature and mythology. How might these portraits have affected our current beliefs about wolves?
2. Compare and contrast the wolf pack family and community with the human family and community. What characteristics do they have in common, and how do they differ?
3. Compare and contrast the characteristics of wolf pups and dog pups. What observable traits of the wolf pups are indicators of adult wolf behavior? Do wolf pups make good pets? What about hybrid pups (half wolf and half dog)?
4. Describe how positions may change in a wolf pack hierarchy. Compare this to human behavior. Consider family, school, and work situations.
5. Analyze the impact the near destruction of wolf populations in North America has had on its prey populations (e.g., deer, elk, antelope), and other related species in their environment. (For example, in Yellowstone National Park, the removal of wolves has increased the elk, antelope, and deer populations, increasing the destruction of vegetation and habitat—thereby decreasing other herbivorous species such as beaver and rabbit. [source: Playing God in Yellowstone by Alston Chase, 1987]).
6. How do humans decide whether and how to reestablish wolf populations in the wild?
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