I have been reading some books by Konrad Lorenz, lent to me by my grandpa. The author was one of the pioneers of animal behaviour studies, breaking off from the long-held assumptions that animals act on instinct alone. The books are "Man meets Dog" (brilliant book examining the relationship between people, dogs and cats, with loads of fun anecdotes) and "Konrad Lorenz on agression". I reccomend tracking these down -- they're pretty old but a very good read.
Anyway, an extract from the second book is what I'm talking about. When we think of wolves or any other animals hunting, we tend to think of them snarling and growling and being generally ferocious. But hunting behaviour is not so similar to aggressive fighting behaviour*runs off to find the book so she can quote*
Quote:
...the inner motives of the hunter are basically different from the fighter. The buffalo which the lion fells provokes his aggression as little as the appetising turkey which I have just seen hanging in the larder provokes mine. The differences in these inner drives can clearly be seen in the expression movements of the animal: a dog about to catch a hunted rabbit has the same kind of excitedly happy expression as he has when he greets his master or awaits some longed-for treat. From many excellent photographs it can be seen that the lion, in the dramatic moment before he springs, is in no way angry. Growling, laying the ears back and other well-known expression movements of fighting behaviour are seen in predatory animals only when they are very afraid of a wildly resisting prey, and even then the expressions are only suggested.
So, I reccommend that the Wolf team, when going back over Scene Two, doesn't overdo the growly noises
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