Wolf Coloring Pages

The wolf is the animal of fairy tales and full moons, but the real one is a family animal that spends its days looking after its pups. These wolf coloring pages have both: the howl on the ridge under a big moon, and the quieter life of the pack.

The family comes first. A mother wolf lies at the mouth of her den while three cubs tumble over her paws, two cubs wrestle in fallen leaves, a pup chews a pine cone among tree roots, a pup bows to play with a butterfly, another tugs a strip of birch bark from a log, and a cub peeks out of a hollow at the foot of a great oak. A wolf carries dry grass to line the den, and a whole pack of five rests on a rocky outcrop.

The rest follow wolves through the seasons. A wolf stands on a ridge with the full moon behind, howls under a sky of stars, and howls again at a flight of geese over the marsh. It drinks from a stream, crosses a log bridge, steps across river stones, shakes water from its coat, leaps a gap between two rocks, walks a beach at low tide, stands among autumn ferns and through a field of lupines, rests among bluebells, sniffs a cluster of mushrooms, stands guard at the edge of the forest, and leans its chin on a boulder by a mountain lake. In winter two wolves trot through the snow, one sleeps under a snowy spruce, one sniffs the first flakes on the heather, and an arctic wolf crosses the pack ice. A close portrait fills a whole page, and a wolf in a flower crown lies in a summer meadow.

For patient colorers, there is a wolf head framed by pine and thistles, a mandala of four wolf heads, a zentangle wolf in profile, a wolf whose body is filled with forest and mountains, and a pattern of paw prints, pine sprigs and moons. A chibi wolf pup in a ring of daisies is there for the youngest.

Why wolves howl

Wolves do not howl at the moon. They howl to talk to each other over long distances: to call the pack together before a hunt, to find a member who has wandered off, or to tell a neighboring pack that this land is taken. A howl can carry for several miles across open country. They often howl at dusk and at night, when they are most active, and the moon happens to be up, which is where the legend comes from. When one wolf starts, the others usually join in, each on a slightly different note, so that a small pack sounds bigger than it is.

A pack is a family

A wolf pack is usually just a family: a mother and father and their pups from the last year or two. The parents lead, hunt and teach, and the older pups help feed and guard the younger ones. Pups are born in spring in a den, blind and deaf, and stay close to it for the first weeks before joining the pack on its travels. At a year or two, many young wolves leave to find a mate and start a pack of their own. Every pet dog is a distant relative: dogs descend from wolves tamed thousands of years ago.

The colors of a real wolf

A gray wolf is rarely one gray.

• The back and shoulders: a mix of gray, tan and black hairs. Color gray first, then add strokes of brown and a few of black along the back.
• The legs and cheeks: a warmer tan or cream.
• The chest, throat and belly: pale cream or white.
• The eyes: yellow or amber, never blue in adult wild wolves.
• The arctic wolf: white or cream all over, with a black nose and amber eyes. Shade it very lightly with pale blue-gray so it does not disappear on the page.

For fur, use short strokes that follow the direction of the coat, leaving thin gaps of white.

Simple wolves and patterned wolves

The quickest pages keep one wolf on an open background, like the wolf howling under the stars and the portrait. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Wolf howling at the stars
• Wolf in the first snow
• Wolf portrait

The densest are the pattern wolves, where every part of the coat is a small shape. Lots of detail begins with:

• Zentangle wolf
• Wolf mandala
• Chibi wolf pup

A wolf moon calendar

January's full moon has long been called the Wolf Moon in old North American almanacs, and each month's full moon has its own name. Color the wolf on the ridge with the full moon, write "Wolf Moon" beneath it, and look up the next full moon date. On that night, go outside together and look for it. It is a small ritual that makes the page worth keeping and gives a reason to look up at the sky.

Printing a pack

Each page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing about six percent so no ear is cut off. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole pack into one file. Other wild relatives are in the fox coloring pages, woodland neighbors in the deer coloring pages and the bear coloring pages, and their tame cousins in the dog coloring pages.