How can wild animals such as wolves maintain themselves?

Question

When I look at my dog, I sometimes think, there's someone like him out there, except it's a wolf. I cut my dog's hair, clean and cut his nails, feed him...

How do wolves survive out in the wild like that? I can see where they get food, but their hair continues to build up? And their nails continue to grow long? If I'm not mistaken, there's no nail salon in the wilderness...

So, how do they do it?

Answer 1

like regular dogs Wolves shed constantly especially when running, hunting, fighting and playing and in the wild they have these things called trees that wolves can rub up agingst and scratch at to sharpen and break off elongated nails.Digging also helps

Common sense strikes again

Answer 2

Wolves nails dont need to be trimed, they are constantly being ground down by walking and running ( plus they need them). Wolves dont need to be brushed (neither does your dog) but with your dog its more of a issue of keeping the hair out of the house.  

Answer 3

There is a nail salon in the wild, it's called nature.  Animals in the wild dig and run on hard surfaces so they keep their nails down by the natural action of the abrasives in their habitat.  

This is just from the normal wear and tear of being a wild animal (or a captive animal that is allowed enough freedom to roam around). This is true for many animals. Wild horses do not necessarily need to get their feet filed, but take a horse out of this natural environment, pen it up, keep it on soft surfaces, not let it walk around grazing all day, the hard nail-like material will grow and grow to the point that they can't walk. Humans must then step in and take over this process.

While horses naturally wear down their feet, it is not uncommon for wild horses to have played and uneven hooves and even cracks that end up crippling them. Again this is part of the natural process and in the wild the law of nature always follows true to survival of the fittest.  The life span of most wild animals is very short compared to animals kept in captivity.  Animals in nature can use natural products in the form of plants and herbs to control worms and parasites to the best of their abilities but the results are not the same as the medical advances we have to offer them.  Huge trade off for the animal but advances in animal husbandry do have it's advantages.    

Answer 4

The reason that domestic animals require so much work is that we have taken them so far out of their natural environment.

Nails grow as fast as they do, because in nature, running, digging, etc. wears them down quickly.  Dogs kept in a house on carpet, or walking around on grass, end up with overgrown nails.

I was a zookeeper and cared for wolves, so I can say that they don't exactly have well-brushed coats in the winter, but they do go through dramatic coat changes in response to the seasons.  Dogs have more problems shedding because they are kept indoors, with artificial light cycles and artificial temperatures.  Like the PP said, wolves also rub off the loose hair on thick brush, rocks, and branches.

It's the same with anything...we have to trim birds' beaks because they don't chew enough in captivity.  We have to trim goats' hooves because they aren't jumping and climbing around on rocks.