35 Facts About Gray wolf

Wolf, known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America.

The Gray wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae.

The Gray wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them.

All members of the genus Canis, the Gray wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large prey, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behaviour including individual or group howling.

The Gray wolf is mainly a carnivore and feeds on large wild hooved mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage.

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Gray wolf classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris, and the wolf as Canis lupus.

Common ancestor of the coyote and the Gray wolf has admixed with a ghost population of an extinct unidentified canid.

The basal position of the coyote compared to the Gray wolf is proposed to be due to the coyote retaining more of the mitochondrial genome of this unidentified canid.

In 2021, a genetic study found that the dog's similarity to the extant gray wolf was the result of substantial dog-into-wolf gene flow, with almost negligible wolf-into-dog gene flow since the dog's domestication.

The Gray wolf's legs are moderately longer than those of other canids, which enables the animal to move swiftly, and to overcome the deep snow that covers most of its geographical range in winter.

The Gray wolf's head is large and heavy, with a wide forehead, strong jaws and a long, blunt muzzle.

In cold climates, the Gray wolf can reduce the flow of blood near its skin to conserve body heat.

The coat of the Eurasian wolf is a mixture of ochreous and rusty ochreous colours with light gray.

The Gray wolf specializes in preying on the vulnerable individuals of large prey, with a pack of 15 able to bring down an adult moose.

In North America, the Gray wolf's diet is dominated by wild large hoofed mammals and medium-sized mammals.

The Gray wolf depends on wild species, and if these are not readily available, as in Asia, the Gray wolf is more reliant on domestic species.

In Eurasian areas with dense human activity, many Gray wolf populations are forced to subsist largely on livestock and garbage.

Striped hyenas feed extensively on Gray wolf-killed carcasses in areas where the two species interact.

In some cases, a lone Gray wolf is adopted into a pack to replace a deceased breeder.

The age of first breeding in wolves depends largely on environmental factors: when food is plentiful, or when Gray wolf populations are heavily managed, wolves can rear pups at younger ages to better exploit abundant resources.

The size of a Gray wolf hunting pack is related to the number of pups that survived the previous winter, adult survival, and the rate of dispersing wolves leaving the pack.

One Gray wolf was observed being dragged for dozens of metres attached to the hind leg of a moose; another was seen being dragged over a fallen log while attached to a bull elk's nose.

The Gray wolf is a protected species in national parks under the Canada National Parks Act.

In Russia, the Gray wolf is regarded as a pest because of its attacks on livestock, and Gray wolf management means controlling their numbers by destroying them throughout the year.

The Indian Gray wolf is distributed across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

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In Vedic Hinduism, the Gray wolf is a symbol of the night and the daytime quail must escape from its jaws.

The Gray wolf is an important crest symbol for clans of the Pacific Northwest like the Kwakwaka'wakw.

The legend of the wereGray wolf has been widespread in European folklore and involves people willingly turning into wolves to attack and kill others.

The Bible uses an image of a Gray wolf lying with a lamb in a utopian vision of the future.

Isengrim the Gray wolf, a character first appearing in the 12th-century Latin poem Ysengrimus, is a major character in the Reynard Cycle, where he stands for the low nobility, whilst his adversary, Reynard the fox, represents the peasant hero.

Villainous Gray wolf characters appear in The Three Little Pigs and "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats".

The musical Peter and the Wolf involves a Gray wolf being captured for eating a duck, but is spared and sent to a zoo.

Competition would favour the Gray wolf, which is known to kill dogs; however, wolves usually live in pairs or in small packs in areas with high human persecution, giving them a disadvantage when facing large groups of dogs.

The majority of victims of predatory Gray wolf attacks are children under the age of 18 and, in the rare cases where adults are killed, the victims are almost always women.

Gray wolf'storic methods included killing of spring-born litters in their dens, coursing with dogs, poisoning with strychnine, and trapping.