Blood ball in the mouth: what is it and what to do about it

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The beast with that scary name no longer exists - the the dreaded wolf extinct many thousands of years ago. It lived on the territory of North America in the most ancient epoch of the late Pleistocene. In the entire history of the Earth, it was one of the largest animals belonging (according to the accepted classification) to the canine. And the largest species belonging to the subfamily of wolves (Caninae).

Origin of the species and description

Photo: Terrible wolf

Despite the presence of certain similarities with the gray wolf, there are significant differences between these two "relatives" - which, incidentally, helped one species survive and led to the extinction of the population of the more formidable and ferocious beast. For example, the horrible wolf's paws were somewhat shorter in length, although they were much sturdier. But the skull was smaller compared to the gray wolf of the same size. In length, the dire wolf greatly exceeded the gray wolf, reaching an average of 1.5 m.

Video: The dire wolf

From all this we can draw a logical conclusion - dire wolves reached the size of large and very large (relative to the gray wolves we are accustomed to), weighed (adjusted for individual genetic characteristics) about 55-80 kg. Yes, morphologically (i.e., by structure of a body) the dire wolves were very similar with modern gray wolves, but two these species, in fact, are not so closely related as it initially seems. At least because they had different habitat - the ancestral home of the latter was Eurasia, and the dire wolf species was formed in North America.

Based on this, the following conclusion is in order: genetically the ancient species of the dire wolf would be closer to the coyote (American endemic) than to the European gray wolf. But for all that, we should not forget that all these animals belong to the same genus, Canis, and are close to each other in a number of traits.

Scientist: Hybrids of wolf and dog are very dangerous and harmful for nature.

Lately there have been frequent reports that wolf and dog hybrids can be found in the forests near Moscow, and some people call them wolf-hounds. How to behave when in the woods you meet an animal that looks like a wolf and a dog at the same time, told the TV channel "MIR 24". Zoologist, biologist, professor, academician of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences, honored ecologist of Russia Anatoly Kudaktin.

- What is the correct name for such a hybrid?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

The mongrel dog and wolf in science is commonly called a wolf-dog hybrid - these are hybrids of the first, second, third generation. After that they become so similar to a wolf that it is very difficult to distinguish them physically - only an expert can do it. These are very complex hybrids - they acquire many of the traits of a dog, and outwardly resemble a wolf.

In the Voronezh region was zoologist Leonid Serafimovich Ryabov, he back in the mid-90s paid very much attention to the study of stray dogs and hybrids of wolves with dogs. And he described everything in great detail.

For many years of work, and I have been dealing with this problem for 50 years, I can say that in the south of Russia - in Dagestan, Krasnodar Krai, the Stavropol Plain, there are very many wolf-dog hybrids and they began to spread throughout the country. And on Wrangel Island they appeared when local dogs ran away, crossed with wolves - they appeared there, on Novaya Zemlya, and in the suburbs of Moscow, no wonder. That they exist, because there are stray, feral dogs that go out into the woods and may mate with wolf cubs, which themselves select by appearance more similar to wolves. But there is a lot of dog blood in them. And these hybrids are what are found in the woods.

If they are in the first generation, they look like both a dog and a wolf: whether they are half wolf, half dog, or half wolf. They are very bad animals, with which we must wage an irreconcilable fight, but it's very difficult to explain to everyone that these hybrids are bad for nature, very bad for nature.

In places where wolf populations persist, wolves drive hybrids out of their population, preventing them from reproducing. As soon as the wolf population drops drastically, wolves are forced to look for a mate, and they find stray dogs, and hybrids come from them.

- An encounter with such a hybrid can be much more dangerous for humans, because the wolf is afraid of humans, and if it has a lot of canine blood, it does not react to stimuli?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

The presence of dog blood changes many elements of the wolf's real behavior. Wolves are territorial, family animals, wolf-dog hybrids are completely different - they go to dumps, they have a completely different attitude to each other, to others, to victims, to people. They may not be afraid of humans at all, they may be close to them, they may approach them, but when gathered in a large group, they may also attack. They have a hypertrophied form of behavior, they are no longer wolves. In many ways, humans themselves are guilty of contributing to the emergence of these hybrids. They have spread widely across the country, following humans - where there are garbage dumps, landfills, cattle dumps. This is an indicator that the wolf population is destroyed or disrupted.

- Hybrids live in packs and live outside populated areas?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

Not necessarily. They can use landfills and cattle dumps as foraging sites, they can enter populated areas, steal dogs, pets, that is, they behave completely inadequately compared to wild wolves, which are panickedly afraid of humans and go away. When there are reports that wolves have attacked people, killed a child, entered a settlement, climbed into a vegetable garden, something else - these are hybrids.

- If a person sees such a pack, what should they do?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

Just don't run away. Anything that runs away from a predator is a victim. We have to explain to everyone. You just have to stop, adopt a threatening posture: raise your arms, open your jacket to show that you are big and strong - then they won't touch you. If you start to panic, run away, they will jump on you. Predators always chase the one who runs away.

- If the hybrid is alone, will it attack?

Anatoly Cudactin:

It will most likely run away because it still has wolf blood in it, and it is afraid of humans. Wolves are genetically afraid of humans. If you go to the circus, you will never see a wild trained wolf, it is impossible. Wolves will only recognize one person, no one else. Many people who keep wolves at home wonder why one member of the family would recognize one wolf and not the others. They have a pack hierarchy - there is a leader and there are subordinates. Who they recognize, he does not know that it is the dominant, and his hierarchical ladder is built by the wolf himself, who lives in the family. Many people first keep wolves and then quickly give them up, throw them into the woods, let them out, and they begin to go wild and meet dogs. We ourselves are guilty of breeding these individuals.

- Are wolfdogs prone to the same diseases? Do they have rabies, but unlike wolves, are they more likely to transmit it to humans?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

Absolutely. They have all the diseases that are characteristic of wild animals: rabies and plague, they are carriers of fleas and ticks. But the wild wolf lives in the wild, they have other options, they are self-medicating and self-cleansing from diseases. And those who go to the dumps, to the garbage dumps, are actually carriers of many diseases. In the case of rabies, they are potential carriers.

- Do any services monitor the appearance of hybrids?

Anatoly Kudaktin:

Ordinary hunting organizations should deal with whose territory such animals appeared - societies of hunters, the State Inspectorate for Control of Wildlife under the Ministry of Natural Resources - they exist in every subject of the federation. They have to control the situation with the wolf. Now it is being discussed that the wolf population in the country has increased, but I ask the question at the conferences, when we gather. We are going to establish an award for wolf extermination. What about wolf-dog hybrids? They are left out, nobody is going to fight them. The answer is simple: let them be fought like stray dogs, but this is not a serious approach and it will not do any good.

Appearance and features

Photo: What the dire wolf looks like

The main difference between the dire wolf and its modern congeners was its morphometric proportions - the ancient predator had a somewhat larger head relative to the torso. Its molar teeth were also more massive compared to those of gray wolves and North American coyotes. That is, the skull of the dire wolf looks like a very large skull of the gray wolf, but the torso (taken in proportion) is smaller.

Some paleontologists believe that dire wolves fed exclusively on carrion, but not all scientists share this view. On the one hand, yes, in favor of the hypothetical scavenging of horrible wolves is evidenced by their incredibly large predator teeth (looking at the skull, we should pay attention to the last pre-molars and mandibular molars). Another (even if indirect) proof of the scavenging of these animals can be a chronological fact. The fact is that during the formation of the direwolf species on the North American continent, dogs of the genus Borophagus, typical scavengers, disappeared.

Still, it would be more logical to assume that the dire wolves were situational scavengers. Probably, they had to eat animal carcasses even more often than gray wolves, but these animals were not obligate (in other words, specialized) scavengers (for example, like hyenas or jackals).

Similarity with the gray wolf and coyote is also observed by morphometric characteristics of the head. But the teeth of the ancient beast were much bigger and the bite force exceeded all known (from those determined in wolves). The peculiarities of the teeth structure provided the terrible wolves with great cutting power, and they could inflict much deeper wounds on their doomed prey than modern predators.

Characteristics of a blood bladder on the oral mucosa

The mucous membrane protects the whole body from the negative influence of the environment, from harmful microorganisms, all kinds of contaminants, and also has a fairly high level of regeneration. If blood blisters regularly appear on the mucous membrane of the mouth, you should take this signal seriously and take action.

A bloody ball in the mouth is a hematoma (bruise), which is characterized by the accumulation of blood in a certain area of the mouth. The occurrence of bloody blisters is a kind of hemorrhage, which occurs as a result of trauma to the capillaries and thin vessels of the mucosa.

A blister on the mucous membrane can be with a clear serous fluid without the presence of blood. This means that the vessels have not been damaged, and the wound formed is superficial in nature. Such blisters on the mucous membrane heal much faster. The presence of blood in the bladder indicates a deep trauma and a longer period of healing, resorption of the blood.

Where did the dire wolf dwell?

Photo: The dire gray wolf

The habitat of the dire wolves was North and South America - these animals inhabited the two continents about 100 thousand years BC. The "flowering" period of the dire wolf species was during the Pleistocene epoch. Such conclusion can be made based on the analysis of fossils of dire wolves found during excavations made in different regions.

Since that time, fossils of dire wolves have been excavated both in the southeast of the continent (Florida lands), and in the south of North America (territorially, the Mexico City Valley). As a kind of "bonus" to the finds in Rancho Labrea, signs of the presence of these animals in California were found in Pleistocene deposits located in the Livermore Valley, as well as in layers of a similar age located in San Pedro. The specimens found in California and Mexico City were smaller and had shorter limbs than those excavated in the central and eastern United States.

The species horrible wolf became finally extinct together with disappearance of mammoth megafauna about 10 thousand years B.C. The reason for the extinction of the dire wolf range is the death of many species of large animals at the time of the last centuries of the Pleistocene epoch that could satisfy the appetite of large predators. That is, the key role was played by banal hunger. In addition to this factor, the actively developing populations of Homo sapiens and wolves contributed to the extinction of the dire wolf as a species. They (mostly the first ones) became new food competitors of the extinct predator.

Despite the developed effective hunting strategy, strength, rage and endurance, the terrible wolves could not oppose anything to a reasonable man. Therefore their unwillingness to retreat together with confidence in their strength played a cruel joke - ferocious predators themselves became prey. Now their skins protected people from the cold, and their fangs became a woman's ornament. Gray wolves were much smarter - they went to serve people, becoming a pet dog.

Now you know where lived the terrible wolf. Let's see what he ate.

What did the terrible wolf ate?

Photo: Terrible wolves

The main "meal on the menu" of horrible wolves were ancient bison and American unpaired hoofed animals. These beasts could also feast on the meat of giant sloths and western camels. An adult mammoth could effectively withstand even a pack of horrible wolves, but a baby mammoth, or a weakened mammoth that broke away from the herd, could easily become the breakfast of horrible wolves.

The hunting methods were not much different from those used by gray wolves to find food. Taking into account the fact that this animal was not squeamish about eating fallen animals, there is every reason to believe that the dire wolf was much more similar to the hyena than to the same gray wolf in its lifestyle and composition of its diet.

However, the dire wolf had one serious difference from all other predators of its family in their food-gathering strategy. Because of the geography of North America, with its many bituminous pits into which large herbivores fell, one of the favorite ways for horrible wolves (as well as many scavenger birds) to find food was to eat a trapped animal.

Yes, large herbivores often fell into traps of natural origin, where predators had no problem finishing off the dying animals, but they also quite often died by getting bogged down in the bitumen themselves. Each pit buried about 10-15 raptors over half a century, leaving our contemporaries with excellent material for study.

Characteristics and lifestyle

Photo: Extinct dire wolves

D. guildayi one of the subspecies of the dire wolf that inhabited the southern United States and Mexico, was the most common of all predators caught in bitumen pits. According to the data given to paleontologists, the remains of dire wolves occur much more often than the remains of gray wolves - the ratio of 5 to 1 is observed. On the basis of this fact arises two conclusions.

The first: the number of dire wolves at that time significantly exceeded the population of all other predator species. The second: taking into account that many wolves became victims of bitumen pits, it is possible to assume, that they gathered in packs for hunting and fed not on carrion but on animals caught in bitumen pits to a greater extent.

Biologists have established a rule - all predators prey on herbivores whose body weight does not exceed the total weight of all members of the attacking pack. Adjusting for the presumed mass of the dire wolf, paleontologists concluded that their average prey weighed about 300-600 kg.

That is, the most preferred objects (in this weight category) became the bison, but with the available depletion of the food chain wolves significantly expanded their "menu", paying attention to animals larger or smaller.

There is evidence that the packs of gray wolves have sought out whales that had been washed ashore and consumed them as food. Taking into account that a pack of gray wolves easily mauls an elk weighing 500 kg, a pack of these animals would have had no difficulty in killing even a healthy but separated from the herd bison.

Social structure and reproduction

Photo: Horrible wolf cubs

Paleontologists' studies of the body size and skulls of dire wolves have determined the presence of gender dimorphism. This finding points to the fact that wolves lived in monogamous pairs. When hunting, predators also worked in pairs, similar to gray wolves and dingo dogs. The "backbone" of the attacking group was the paired male and female, and all other wolves of the pack were their helpers. The presence of several animals during the hunt guaranteed the protection of the killed animal or the victim trapped in a bitumen pit from the encroachment of other predators.

Most likely, the terrible wolves, distinguished by their strength and great mass, but also by their lesser endurance, attacked even healthy animals that were larger than themselves. After all, gray wolves hunt fast-legged animals in packs - so why couldn't the stronger and more ferocious dire wolves afford to attack larger and slower animals? The specificity of hunting was also influenced by sociality - this phenomenon was not as pronounced in dire wolves as in gray wolves.

Most likely, like North American coyotes, they lived in small family groups and did not organize extensive packs like gray wolves. They hunted in groups of four or five. One pair and 2 or 3 young wolves were "spotters". Such behavior was quite logical - enough to guarantee a positive result (even a bison alone could not resist five predators attacking simultaneously), and there was no need to divide prey among many.

Interesting fact: In 2009, on the cinema screens was presented a chilling bloodthirsty thriller, the main character was a terrible wolf. And the film was named after a prehistoric predator, which makes sense. The essence of the story boils down to the fact that American scientists managed to combine human DNA with DNA extracted from a fossil skeleton of the terrible wolf, a bloody prehistoric predator that reigned during the Ice Age. The result of such unusual experiments was the production of a terrifying hybrid. Naturally, such a beast was repugnant to becoming a lab rat, so it found a way to get free and engaged in the search for sustenance.

The main causes of a blood blister

The general condition and integrity of the oral mucosa usually indicates the level of health of the body. Often by examining the appearance of the oral mucosa and blisters, the doctor will make a definitive diagnosis. After all, most infectious, bacterial, chronic as well as acute processes that occur in the body are symptomatic of changes in the integrity and color of the oral mucosa. Therefore, it is important to understand the main causes of blisters with blood in the mouth.

Blood blisters are distinguished by the place where they occur - on the tongue, under the tongue, on the cheek. They can occur as a consequence of an injury or be a signal of the presence of a serious body disease. Multiple blood blisters on the mucous membranes of the mouth can occur with stomatitis, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, disorders of the endocrine system. The reason for the sudden occurrence of blood bubbles in the mouth is damage to the mucosa.

The following types of damage to the oral cavity are distinguished:

• Mechanical trauma.
  The cause can be various objects, hard food, biting the cheek;
• Chemical trauma.
  It occurs due to the use of spicy, salty food, contact with the mucosa of chemicals. This irritates the delicate mucosa of the mouth and trauma occurs;
• Thermal trauma.
  Their appearance is provoked by too cold or hot food, drinks.

The natural enemies of dire wolves

Photo: What does the dire wolf look like

The main competitors for the meat of large animals in the time of the dire wolves were the smilodon and the American lion. These three predators shared the population of bison, western camels, Columbus mammoths and mastodons. And intensely changing climatic conditions led to a significant increase in competition between these predators.

As a result of the climatic shifts that occurred, during the last glacial maximum, camels and bison shifted from pastures and grasslands primarily to forest-steppe, feeding on coniferous trees. Taking into account the fact that the maximum percentage in the "menu" of the dire wolf (as well as all its competitors) were unpaired ungulates (wild horses), and sloths, bison, mastodons and camels were much less likely to get to these predators "for dinner", the population of predators was rapidly declining. The herbivores listed above had much smaller numbers and therefore could not "feed" the multiplied predators.

However, gregarious hunting and social behavior of dire wolves allowed them to successfully compete with natural enemies, which significantly surpassed them in all physical data, but preferred to "work" alone. The conclusion is that the Smilodons and American lions disappeared much earlier than the dire wolves. What's more, they themselves were often prey to wolf packs.

The Mechanism of Blood Bladder Formation on the Mucosa of the Mouth

Bloody blisters in the mouth in most cases are not life-threatening. They form as a result of mechanical damage to the mucosa. When a microtrauma occurs, harmful microorganisms attack the damaged area.

After that, a number of reactions are triggered in the human body:

• The immune system is activated. Monocytes and leukocytes, as well as macrophages, instantly arrive at the damaged area and attack the harmful pathogen and quickly destroy it.
• The immune cells die. This is a signal to other cells and in the area of the lesion are released substances that are mediators of mucosal inflammation - serotonin, histamine and bradykinin.
• These substances cause severe spasm of the circulatory system and the outflow of blood is impeded. Once the spasm is relieved, all the accumulated blood instantly travels to the site of inflammation. It moves at high velocity and under pressure. There is a detachment of the mucosa in the mouth and a bubble with a bloody filling occurs.