Canidae is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid. The family includes three subfamilies: the Caninae, and the extinct Borophaginae and Hesperocyoninae. The Caninae are known as canines, and include domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals and other species.
There are 38 subspecies of Canis lupus listed in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World. These subspecies were named over the past 250 years, and since their naming, a number of them have gone extinct. The nominate subspecies is the Eurasian wolf.
The wolf, also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gray wolves, as popularly understood, only comprise naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest wild extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.
Canis is a genus of the Caninae which includes multiple extant species, such as wolves, dogs, coyotes, and golden jackals. Species of this genus are distinguished by their moderate to large size, their massive, well-developed skulls and dentition, long legs, and comparatively short ears and tails.
Claudio Sillero-Zubiri is an Argentine-born British zoologist. He is a Professor of Conservation Biology at Oxford University's WildCRU, the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, and Bill Travers Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall. He is the Chair of the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group, and Chief Scientist of the Born Free Foundation. He is internationally recognized for his work with carnivore conservation, and in particular the endangered Ethiopian wolf.
The Eurasian wolf, also known as the common wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Europe and Asia. It was once widespread throughout Eurasia prior to the Middle Ages. Aside from an extensive paleontological record, Indo-European languages typically have several words for "wolf", thus attesting to the animal's abundance and cultural significance. It was held in high regard in Baltic, Celtic, Slavic, Turkic, ancient Greek, Roman, Dacian, and Thracian cultures, whilst having an ambivalent reputation in early Germanic cultures.
Canid hybrids are the result of interbreeding between the species of the subfamily Caninae.
The Italian wolf, also known as the Apennine wolf, is a subspecies of the grey wolf native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the Apennine Mountains and the Western Alps, though it is undergoing expansion towards the north and east. As of 2022 the wolf population within Italy is estimated to be 3,307 individuals. Although not universally recognised as a distinct subspecies, it nonetheless possesses a unique mtDNA haplotype and a distinct skull morphology.
The Iberian wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf. It inhabits the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes northwestern Spain and northern Portugal. It is home to 2,200-2,700 wolves which have been isolated from mixing with other wolf populations for over a century. They form the largest wolf population in Western Europe.
The Himalayan wolf is a canine of debated taxonomy. It is distinguished by its genetic markers, with mitochondrial DNA indicating that it is genetically basal to the Holarctic grey wolf, genetically the same wolf as the Tibetan and Mongolian wolf, and has an association with the African wolf. No striking morphological differences are seen between the wolves from the Himalayas and those from Tibet. The Himalayan wolf lineage can be found living in Ladakh in the Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, and the mountains of Central Asia predominantly above 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in elevation because it has adapted to a low-oxygen environment, compared with other wolves that are found only at lower elevations.
Armbruster's wolf is an extinct species that was endemic to North America and lived during the Irvingtonian stage of the Pleistocene epoch, spanning from 1.9 Mya—250,000 years BP. It is notable because it is proposed as the ancestor of one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, the dire wolf, which replaced it.
Erich Klinghammer was a wolf biologist best known for his contributions to the fields of ethology and behavioural ecology, particularly that of canids. He was the founder of Wolf Park in Indiana and a professor of animal behaviour at Purdue University.
Gregory's wolf, also known as the Mississippi Valley wolf, was a hybrid canine subspecies of the red wolf. It was declared extinct in 1980. It once roamed the regions in and around the lower Mississippi River basin. This hybridization has been a subject of research due to its implications for both conservation efforts and the genetic makeup of wild wolf populations. It is believed that these hybrids originated due to the overlap of territories between wild wolves and feral or free-ranging domestic dogs, particularly in rural and forested regions where human influence on the landscape is significant.
It is widely agreed that the evolutionary lineage of the grey wolf can be traced back 2 million years to the Early Pleistocene species Canis etruscus, and its successor the Middle Pleistocene Canis mosbachensis. The grey wolf Canis lupus is a highly adaptable species that is able to exist in a range of environments and which possesses a wide distribution across the Holarctic. Studies of modern grey wolves have identified distinct sub-populations that live in close proximity to each other. This variation in sub-populations is closely linked to differences in habitat – precipitation, temperature, vegetation, and prey specialization – which affect cranio-dental plasticity.
Wolves communicate using vocalizations, body postures, scent, touch, and taste. The lunar phases have no effect on wolf vocalisation. Despite popular belief, wolves do not howl at the Moon. Gray wolves howl to assemble the pack, usually before and after hunts, to pass on an alarm particularly at a den site, to locate each other during a storm or while crossing unfamiliar territory, and to communicate across great distances. Other vocalisations include growls, barks and whines. Wolves do not bark as loudly or continuously as dogs do but they bark a few times and then retreat from a perceived danger. Aggressive or self-assertive wolves are characterized by their slow and deliberate movements, high body posture and raised hackles, while submissive ones carry their bodies low, sleeken their fur, and lower their ears and tail. Raised leg urination is considered to be one of the most important forms of scent communication in the wolf, making up 60–80% of all scent marks observed.
The Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) is a working group of the IUCN Commission on the Conservation of Species. and a Non-governmental organization. President of the LCIE is the Secretary of the IUCN Wolf Specialist Group Luigi Boitani. Its objective is to maintain and restore viable populations of large carnivores in coexistence with humans as an integral part of ecosystems and landscapes throughout Europe.
Ilka Reinhardt is a German biologist and wolf expert. She is together with Gesa Kluth Founder and director of LUPUS - Institute for Wolf Monitoring and Research in Germany and the Freundeskreis freilebender Wölfe. She was appointed by the Saxon State Ministry for the Environment and Agriculture as the wolf commissioner. Ilka Reinhardt works with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Naturschutzbund Deutschland. In Poland, the biologist Sabina Nowak has a similar position. Ilka Reinhardt and Sabina Nowak are members of the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe and cooperate with the CEWolf Consortium.
The favourable conservation status of wolves is the definition of a wolf population that is no longer threatened with extinction, that is capable of long-term survival. In Europe the favourable conservation status is defined by the Guidelines for Population Level Management Plans for Large Carnivores. It is the minimum viable population, that can be of different numbers of wolves depending on their connectivity with neighbouring populations. According to the IUCN guidelines, at least 1000 adult animals are required for isolated populations. If a wolf population is effectively linked genetically and demographically with other wolf populations, more than 250 mature wolves may be sufficient.
