My view of Werewolf Biology (update)

Physical Qualities
Human Features: Werewolves don’t have any distinguishing features that would mark them to any observation, casual or otherwise, while in their human form. They look like anyone else with their normal abnormalities or blemishes that normal humans can have. They can have piercings, tattoos, and even scars or missing limbs, and all of these extra features are shared between the forms. Legends such as equal length middle and index fingers, eyebrows growing together and other such abnormalities are no indication that a person is a werewolf and just as likely to happen to a normal person as a werewolf. It’s all genetics based. Most legends prescribing such features were wives tales invented by frightful people and usually used to persecute innocent people in darker days that either an individual didn’t like or entire towns didn’t.

Werewolves do tend to be more toned looking, but this isn’t always the case as a fat werewolf is just as possible, though uncommon given their metabolic nature. Internally, the werewolf’s body operates slightly different from a normal humans but nothing would actually alert or alarm most people to anything unusual. Werewolves typically have a faster resting heart rate but not alarmingly so, and typically have a higher body temperature, resting anywhere between a humans 98.6F to a wolf’s 104F. This, of course, might alarm doctors some as they might actually think it is a high fever, instead of a natural body temperate, thus most werewolves would tend to avoid hospitals and stick with personal doctors who know about them.

Their senses are only slightly better than that of a normal human with a little bit better sense of smell and hearing. They won’t be able to track someone by scent in human form and certainly won’t be able to hear anything much higher than a normal person could, so legends of them hearing a dog whistle while in human form are greatly exaggerated. Their eyesight is normal as compared to a human with similar chances for color blindness or other vision problems.

The Transformation: To an outside observer, the transformation looks and sounds excruciatingly painful. The first thing that assaults the senses is the sound of cracking and popping bones as they reorient and what can only be described as wet, stretching leather. Visually a person see’s some shifting under the skin as the muscles get stronger for the new form while the skin visibly stretches out in places and fur starts growing becoming thicker and the werewolf’s body appears to slightly get bigger.

To the werewolf this is normal and feels no different than breathing though the first few times, if they don’t know, can be frightening and feel weird and unusual and somewhat painful, though not to the extent that it feels cripplingly so. Werewolves can control how fast or slow the transformation takes, depending on what they are doing, to the point of transforming in the blink of an eye or extending it out to show off or even frighten others. A werewolf who practices a lot can even do partial transformations, only changing parts they want changed instead of their entire body.

The transformation itself causes many obvious outward changes. The head elongates and becomes very canine like with the face gaining a muzzle and snout and ears becoming pointed and very wolf like. The canines elongate with the rest of the teeth getting a bit sharper in the front for ripping and tearing. The werewolves jaw muscles also get stronger with the added leverage of the muzzle length giving them a very powerful bite capable of cracking bones. The tongue itself gets longer and thinner, giving them a somewhat enhanced sense of taste over a normal human, thanks to their increased sense of smell. The werewolf’s hair remains in place, though it might get disheveled somewhat, being more mane-like in appearance to some people.

The chest itself widens slightly to allow for slightly bigger lung capacity. The shoulders themselves arc outward a bit with the blades repositioning themselves to allow for the werewolf to walk or run on all fours if they so choose. Female werewolves retain their breasts in this form though they do not change in size; getting a bit more stretched over the frame, but unlike a wolf, do not develop extra nipples or breasts. A tail also sprouts from the base of the spine which serves as a way to balance a werewolf when they are choosing to stand on two legs as well as a way to promote signaling without saying anything.

The fingers and toes stretch out some, allowing for better grip to uneven surfaces, while the nails become hard and long turning into claws. The foot itself elongates and becomes canine like with the big toe actually moving back and becoming a dew claw on the foot. Both the palm of the hands and the ball of the feet develop small, wolf-like pads that provide protection for both foot and hands when running about on all fours.

Fur also sprouts all over the body, the coloring of the fur generally being close to what the normal hair color of the werewolf is, but not being unusual for fur patterns to appear, or some off colors appearing. Albinos might have pure white fur, and a completely different hair color, for instance. The general thickness of the fur range depends on a couple of factors, mostly the weather, with summer having a not so thick coat while winter providing a thicker coat. Other factors can also play a part such as genetics but a werewolf will still be covered fully by fur regardless of weather, outside of being sick or some skin deformity.

Features that the werewolf had in their human form can also carry over, especially if they are not natural features. Scars, earrings and tattoos are not removed by the transformation. If the werewolf is wearing earrings they will be on their lupine ears (though in different spots relative to the new shape and more spread out if they have a cluster of them). Scars will be visible as fur won’t grow over the tough tissue, though any tattoos will likely be hidden under the fur. Missing limbs or body parts will still be missing in the werewolf form as well.

In all the werewolf generally will gain about an extra foot in height from their normal height, though this largely depends on their height in their human form. Part of this is from their feet becoming more haunch-like, like a wolf but some of it is actual growth of the body, though it is much sleeker and tending towards a running form. The weight of the werewolf also increases due to increased muscle mass, though how much weight the werewolf gains is variable and largely depends on their life style to begin with. A lazy werewolf might see, maybe 25 to 30 pounds extra while an athletic and active werewolf could see as much as 75 extra pounds, most of it from added muscle mass. Werewolves that are very muscular in their human form can get even heavier.

The transformation is also why most werewolves tend to wear loose fitting or easily discarded clothing. Though the transformation can generally rip through most fabrics, sturdy materials can actually constrict and hurt the werewolf if they are too tight. Most clothing tends to either rip outright or break at the seams, though they don’t like tearing up good clothes either, and try to avoid it as much as possible, thus stick to looser clothing that becomes more form fitting in their lupine form. Jewelry they can wear and the parts that generally matter (such as fingers, ankles, toes, ears) don’t put any undue stress on the materials, though many tend to avoid it due to practicality purposes (such as necklaces getting snagged on things).

Werewolf Biology: In this state the differences are obvious, externally as well as internally. Hearing increases allowing the werewolf to hear way better and at higher frequencies due to the ears becoming more accepting of sounds, and the sense of smell becomes greatly enhanced thanks to the increased size of the nasal cavity. Eyesight allows them to see movement much easier and for more light to come in during the night time hours allowing for greater night vision, but they retain their ability to see in color (provided they had no vision abnormalities to begin with) thus giving them an advantage over normal wolves.

The werewolf’s lung capacity also increases with the slightly increased size of the chest cavity, which gives them greater over all stamina for long distance running or for fast sprint runs. The heart rate also increases to provide more oxygen to the body over all, with the temperature of the werewolf approaching closer to a normal wolf’s 104F in this form.

Werewolves are born the way they are, just like a human is born a human and a wolf is born a wolf. They aren’t made into what they are, though for most of their young life, they won’t be able to transform, with a few exceptions. Most werewolves teach their children very early on about how werewolves actually work, showing them the transformation, and guiding them on how to better understand their growing senses. The first change of a werewolf usually happens before or during puberty in a normal person, though exceptions can occur with some changing sooner or later than expected.

Werewolves not brought up in such an environment and not sure of what is going on might be frightened of the changes that are occurring in them. Depending on how much Hollywood they take in, this could lead to them actually believing the wrong things, but most werewolves generally can identify another werewolf by scent and try to move in quickly so that any unfortunate events don’t happen. This might be some sources of legendary werewolf attacks on others.

Werewolves learn control of their abilities like any normal person would learn control of their own body. Though high emotions can trigger a transformation, they can generally keep themselves in check in most normal situations, not unlike normal people keeping their own emotions in check in situations.

Werewolf Abilities: Werewolves can walk on all fours or two legs, and still retain the fine motor skills able to grip and use tools. The slightly added length of their fingers and toes allows them to have a better grip on surfaces they are as capable of, allowing them to hold on better. Werewolves also use their claws for gripping but know not to with delicate surfaces and such. As far as weapons they serve well, but striking tough materials and surfaces can result in ripping out the claws.

Werewolves’ sense of smell is equivalent to that of normal wolves. Downwind from something they can smell and track something nearly 2 miles away, with their nose being able to pick out distinct odors based on scent. Though this is extremely muted in their human form they can still pick out scents more easily especially the closer they are. In their werewolf form they can tell many things about the scent they are tracking just on smell alone, such as if it is injured or not, what cologne it might be wearing and even if they are afraid, aroused or any other natural state.

Next to scent hearing is also another key feature that the werewolf gains. Like wolves, their sense of hearing increases greatly with the auditory range going up allowing them to hear frequencies that normal humans can’t. The range they can hear at, of course, depends largely on terrain with up to 6 miles in forested areas and 10 miles in an open plains area with few obstructions.

Eyesight also becomes enhanced allowing for a werewolf to detect even the slightest movement with their eyes, gaining some added night vision as well. They also retain the human quality of the eye, being able to still see in color, thus giving them an edge even over normal wolves as far as sight is concerned.

Werewolves increased stamina allows them to run for long distances as well just like a wolf, and when on all fours they can sprint up to speeds from 35 to 40 MPH when the need arises for short distances, with the ability to leap to heights of 6 to 8 feet, just like a wolf. They can also climb decently gripping with fingers and toes using their claws for added grip on some surfaces, making their range of mobility a bit greater than humans and wolves in general, with the added strength giving them the ability to hold on better as needed.

Finally, werewolves do have slightly better healing than a normal human, thanks to the enhanced metabolism. However, this is not to be confused with regeneration as their wounds don’t instantly close up, nor do they regrow lost limbs or body parts. Once a part of a werewolf is gone, it is gone and won’t regrow back and severe injuries will scar up without proper medical attention. Werewolves aren’t immortal either with life spans a bit longer than humans provided that they have proper nutrition and are in good health.

Myths and Legends
Silver Bullets: The legend of the silver bullet is almost completely a Hollywood fabrication. Though there are a couple of legends of a hunter taking out a supposed werewolf with a silver bullet, the reality of why this won’t work is fairly simple. Silver, as a metal, is much tougher than lead, and these factors weigh in heavily against a silver bullet actually being a lethal weapon to use at all on normal people, let alone werewolves.

First concerns rifling. Rifling is the spiral groove in the barrel of most ballistic weapons that digs into the bullet and makes it spin, thus making it more accurate. The less spin the bullet has, the less accurate it becomes and the more wobbly in flight it is as it heads towards the intended target (hence why pre-rifling muskets were highly inaccurate). Lead is a soft material and allows for the rifling to do its work and spin the bullet making it more accurate as it leaves the barrel of the gun in question, while silver is made of a harder material, making the rifling less effective against it. Once the silver bullet leaves the barrel of the gun, it has less spin thus its trajectory in flight is wildly less accurate over a standard lead bullet.

The second part concerns the actual impact. Again this is based solely on the softness of the material as much as the speed of the bullet. Now saying the bullets hit, the lead bullet being made of a softer material tends to either mushroom out on impact or shatter. It is this added effect from the lead slug that actually incurs the most dreaded effects of being shot by a bullet, internal damage caused by the expansion resulting in tearing and severe trauma of internal organs it may hit along the way. The actual impact wound might look small, but the interior damage can be quite extensive because of this.

On the other hand, because a silver bullet is much stronger material it is less likely to expand like this and more or less keeping its shape. The result is that it will actually just pass through the target and cause less internal damage in the long run, and internal organs may actually remain relatively intact or unscathed though a wound would still be present. This is not to mistake that a silver bullet wound can’t be fatal, it can be, but the chance of an accurate hit and one that causes lasting trauma or even fatal trauma is significantly less than that of a normal lead bullet.

Silver in general is just like any other material to a werewolf. Werewolves are just as susceptible to the same materials as any other animal or human, though they are more resilient. Silver doesn’t burn them just by holding it or ingesting it or any other internal effect and they have a like or dislike to it just like anyone else. In short a werewolf can be killed by a normal bullet, bludgeoned or even stabbed to death like any other creature by any type of item.

Wolfsbane: Wolfsbane (known as monkshood or aconite) is a peculiar bane that was created that has no basis in the reality of werewolves. It’s a poisonous material to humans as much as werewolves, though legends can differ (as well as liberties [I’ve personally seen a few legends treat wolfsbane like catnip for werewolves]). The possible reality of where this specific herb being a werewolf repellant comes from is that it was used to kill wolves in older times, hence the name wolf’s bane. In short, this herb has no special effects on a werewolf beyond what it would normally cause in a human being (ie poisonous in general).

Lunar Effects: The most often used legend of the werewolf, as far as Hollywood is concerned, is that they are controlled and influenced by the phases of the moon. This, again, probably stems that wolves are more active under a full moon than actual basis on anything else, but this is also true for most other animals as well. Though it’s not understood, lunar cycle seems to affect all living things, hence the term lunatic (aka lunar madness), but otherwise the phases of the moon have no influence on a werewolf any other way other than their tendency on how romantic it might be. A werewolf is in full control of their transformation, though some might play games with people as a practical joke or out of malice.

Superhuman Stength and Speed: Werewolves are stronger and more agile than humans, in general, but not superhumanly so. A werewolf’s strength increase is also largely dependent on how much care they take with themselves in their human form as well. A werewolf that exercises regularly will retain that strength and gain an increase in their werewolf form, but not a major increase. While a werewolf might be able to pick up a human much easier and in some cases toss them around a bit, they aren’t going to pick up and throw cars, tear through steel doors or punch a concrete brick in half naturally.

As far as speed is concerned, werewolves are faster runners but they don’t move faster than the eye can see. Werewolves tend to use stealth and misdirection when they are stalking a target and this can lead to some believing that the werewolf is faster than the eye can see. They prefer to attack from the flank or rear on the target, instead of head on, so they can use their jaws for a quick kill on the target instead of a long, drawn out fight. They are quite agile though and able to move out of the way of attacks provided they can see it coming, but they can’t magically dodge bullets shot their way without at least being aware of the shooter first and where they are aiming in advance of the shot, like any other person.

Regeneration: This is more of a recent invention of modern stories to try and account for the werewolf’s immortality to all but silver bullets. The explanation is that the werewolf can regenerate. This of course, is false. Werewolves don’t regenerate, they heal faster than a normal person, able to heal up superficial wounds like scratches and such, in less than a day or two with more severe wounds taking longer (broken bones generally mending in half the time of a normal human), but they don’t regenerate. Lost limbs and parts (like eyes and ears) will remain lost and severe injuries will scar up without medical attention. This additional healing is mostly due to the werewolves increased metabolism. This fact alone of that mortality is also another reason a werewolf will not attack a target head on, unless they know they have the upper hand or are in a pack.

Werewolves are more resilient to diseases, but they can get colds and other viruses. Just they would have to be particularly virulent in those cases. Due to their nature they are also vulnerable to wolf and canine specific viruses as well, though, again, they would have to be more virulent in order to take root in their system. Due to their mixed biology, it could be conceivable that a werewolf can act as a catalyst to allow canine only viruses to jump to human, and vice versa.

Infections and Curses: This is probably as big as the legend of how lunar cycle affects werewolves, but the oft held belief is that lycanthropy is a curse or an infectious disease contracted by the bite or claws of a werewolf, if the victim survives. In short, this is completely false for several reasons. First, if they hunt they hunt to kill as fast as possible. They are not malicious (though some can be if someone personally pissed them off). Like wolves, when a werewolf attacks they typically go for the neck with their powerful jaws, usually from the flank or behind so they can latch on to deliver a swift, killing blow by snapping the neck. A werewolf’s jaw is fairly powerful, much like a wolf’s, which can generate nearly 1,500 lbs./square inch of force on whatever they are biting. Unlike legends, most werewolves don’t make a habit of hunting people unless they are being attacked or were pissed off to begin with.

Furthermore, ignoring the possibility of that alone, werewolf claws carry no venom or anything else that could be considered infectious beyond what you might find underneath a normal human fingernail. The possibility of contracting anything through claws that would cause a person to be infected with lycanthropy is pretty much non-existent just on that fact alone. And provided the person survives a bite alone, there is no disease or venom that the werewolf secretes that would actually cause an infection like that.

The other reason that an infection would be impossible is a biological one. While werewolves are similar in respects to humans in biology, there are enough differences that if a normal person were to undergo such a transformation, their life expectancy might not last more than a month, at best. The metabolic requirements of the werewolf body are high, higher than most human bodies can handle. The lung capacity for endurance and increased need of heart rate alone would produce an incredible strain that would eventually lead to a heart attack or worse the heart exploding. And outside of that facet, in this case the werewolf might die from the act of the transformation alone as the human body, not built for such things naturally, would probably be crippled with the pain of a transformation, and this trauma alone can be lethal to a person.

If a person were enchanted by magic to become a werewolf in some way (either through talismans or spells) the end result would be that the “cursed” werewolf in question would have to eat a lot more than normal just to maintain the energy necessary to survive. This could lead to the legendary idea behind werewolves attacking other people as the desire to eat to fuel the body grows incredibly stronger, which could override the sense of judgment completely due to the nature that the body the magically changed werewolf has is not capable of metabolizing food as efficiently. Most legends revolving around magic or curses are probably where the idea that a werewolf is a mindless, monstrous beast came from.

Animals Fear Werewolves: This is partially true. Animals fear predators or in the case of territorial animals, like dogs, cats and other wolves, competition. The animals smell a predator about them, and tend to get nervous they don’t smell a werewolf in general. This can lead to them being spotted easier but is no sure sign that a werewolf is present. Not all animals react negatively just because a werewolf is about. A werewolf has to be a bit more cautious when approaching domestic animals like cows and horses to allow the animal to see that the werewolf is not a threat, and can generally approach such animals as long as they aren’t doing so aggressively.

With dogs and cats, it’s not as hard since most people tend to ignore a dog that barks at passing people or cats hissing. How they handle it is solely up to the werewolf in general, but they can generally get a better reaction, after a few moments than most people tend to get if the animals don’t like them.

Werewolves also don’t have any mystic control over canines or wolves in general they are often attributed with. Though they can influence pack mentality on wolves, they still can’t just magically assume command of an animal. They have to show their command just like any other person, they just have an easier time of it.