“Don’t look a wolf in their eye!” …How many times have you heard this popular myth? Even some experienced biologists believe this before visiting the Sawtooth or Owyhee Pack. The truth is that wolves use eye position as an important form of communication, both within their pack and toward other animals around them (like us).
Gray wolves will look one another in the eye, as humans do, when communicating a greeting, dominance behaviors, and other social gestures. Wolf handlers at the Wolf Center are taught very early, even before meeting the pack, to look into the pack member’s eyes when greeting. This allows the wolves opportunity to examine the emotions or mental state of the handler, a process that can be difficult to perceive from humans absent facial postures.
Wolves communicate regularly through subtle and sometimes dramatic facial postures, however, humans have become quite stoic in facial postures through time probably because of our heavy dependency on verbal communication. Still, most humans maintain very subtle posturing through their eyes, a trait captive wolves can learn to decipher. Hence, eye contact with any canine, from your dog to a wild wolf, is a beneficial action that promotes social communication and bonding. There may be times when eye contact is not appropriate with an unknown canine that exhibits potential hostile behaviors, such as growling and snarling.