A wolf is a wild carnivorous mammal of the dog family, living and hunting in packs.
- In a calling of Zeke’s, a wolf appears in the hallway outside of Michaela’s apartment (114.5). When Zeke opens the door, the wolf leaps toward him and then vanishes (cf. 114.7).
- Ben and Michaela are able to connect Zeke’s calling with what happened to Cal the night before (114.7). Ben and Grace found Cal on the floor, he said, “It’s coming” (114.1).
- Ben speculates that the wolf could be anything or anyone, e.g. the Major, the red X tagger, some unknown threat (114.7).
- Zeke wants Cal to help him understand the wolf calling, but Cal at first is reluctant (114.9, 114.16).
- Ben tells Michaela that he thinks Adrian is a false prophet, a wolf’s in sheep’s clothing, Matthew 7:15 (114.17).
- After Cal draws a picture of a wolf attacking Michaela, James Griffin who was presumed dead for four days lunges toward Michaela making noises like a growling wolf (114.22).
The expression, “a wolf’s in sheep’s clothing” in Matthew 7:15 signifies a dangerous person who is pretending to be harmless; an enemy which is disguising as a friend. This idiom is a warning that you cannot necessarily trust someone simply because they appear to be kind and friendly. The meaning of this idiom relies on the idea that a sheep is a docile sweet creature, whereas a wolf is a sly, vicious animal who likes to attack and eat vulnerable animals such as sheep or lambs (their young). This idiom has been used for thousands of years, perhaps since the 5th or 6th Century BC, when Aesop wrote his fable entitled Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. The fable told the story of a wolf who disguised himself in a sheep skin in order to trick the shepherd and remain in the sheep pasture until darkness, when he planned to feast on the other sheep in the field. The symbolism of a wolf pretending to be a sheep also appears in the Bible in the book of Matthew. It is written “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening (hungry) wolves”.1Endnotes:
Recent Activity (Glossary)
|Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus).|
|Historical (red + green) and modern (green) range of wild subspecies of C. lupus|
The wolf (Canis lupus), also known as the grey/gray wolf or timber wolf, is a canine native to the wilderness and remote areas of Eurasia and North America. It is the largest extant member of its family, with males averaging 43–45 kg (95–99 lb) and females 36–38.5 kg (79–85 lb). It is distinguished from other Canis species by its larger size and less pointed features, particularly on the ears and muzzle. Its winter fur is long and bushy and predominantly a mottled gray in color, although nearly pure white, red, and brown to black also occur.Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed., 2005), a standard reference work in zoology, recognises 38 subspecies of C. lupus.
The gray wolf is the second most specialized member of the genus Canis, after the Ethiopian wolf, as demonstrated by its morphological adaptations to hunting large prey, its more gregarious nature, and its highly advanced expressive behavior. It is nonetheless closely related enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote, and golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids. It is the only species of Canis to have a range encompassing both the Old and New Worlds, and originated in Eurasia during the Pleistocene, colonizing North America on at least three separate occasions during the Rancholabrean. It is a social animal, travelling in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair, accompanied by the pair's adult offspring. The gray wolf is typically an apex predator throughout its range, with only humans and tigers posing a serious threat to it. It feeds primarily on large ungulates, though it also eats smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage. A seven-year-old wolf is considered to be relatively old, and the maximum lifespan is about 16 years.
The global gray wolf population is estimated to be 300,000. The gray wolf is one of the world's best-known and most-researched animals, with probably more books written about it than any other wildlife species. It has a long history of association with humans, having been despised and hunted in most pastoral communities because of its attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies. Although the fear of wolves is pervasive in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to animals suffering from rabies. Non-rabid wolves have attacked and killed people, mainly children, but this is rare, as wolves are relatively few, live away from people, and have developed a fear of humans from hunters and shepherds.