Separating Wolves from their Pack

Separating wolves — even unrelated wolves — for even a short time is extremely distressing to them.

At the International Wolf Center (wolf.org), they removed a 1-year old female wolf to spay her. The doc said to keep her by herself for five days — for the stitches to heal. But the female ripped the fence apart within 12 hours to get back to the wolf she’d been with. 

Imagine, then, how strong the motivation must be for young adult wolves to leave the family in search of a mate.