By Darrin Masters / Biologist / Wolf Song of Alaska Volunteer
Have you ever wondered why wolves have been so successful? Yes, I mean successful. I know wolves are endangered in the contiguous 48 states and their populations have been significantly reduced in Alaska and Canada, however, that is largely due to the clash between wolves and humans.
Wolves have been around for over 60 million years, that is a whole lot longer than we hominoids. The reason? Adaptation.
With the exception of tropical rain forests and arid deserts, wolves have inhabited all types of habitat in the northern hemisphere. This includes hardwood, softwood, and mixed forests, savannas, plains or steppes, taiga and arctic tundra. This wide range of distribution requires adaptability because each habitat presents different problems for survival. The available resources in the arctic tundra differ greatly from the resources of eastern deciduous forests. When looking at a variety of habitat that the wolf occupies, it is prudent to expect variability within the species <I>Canis lupus.</I> This variability within a species sometimes necessitates the identification of subspecies.
Small physical differences among the geographic races of wolves arise from the myriad of selective pressures present in each type of habitat. If a population in one area exhibits characteristics substantiality different from that of the population in another area, a separate subspecies name is assigned.
There are 32 subspecies of wolf in the world. Twenty-four in North America and eight in Eurasia. In order to distinguish wolves in the world from one area to another, Goldman (1944) considers the following characteristics important: "Gross average size; general color, whether light or dark, plain grayish overlaid with black, or mixed varying shades of pinkish buff to tawny; general form and massiveness of skull, including weight of the braincase, frontal profile, posterior extension (width of the back of the skull), length of rostrum (nose), and size of auditory bullae (ears) size, and relative length and breadth of molar teeth"
Most of these characteristics can only be identified upon close examination of the wolf. However, two major types of wolves, timber and tundra, can easily be distinguished.
Timber wolves live mostly in forested areas, tend to be gray or black. Tundra wolves, on the other hand, are lighter in color, although there are occasionally black individuals. Timber wolves have more pointed ears, tundra wolves' are more rounded. Timber wolves have more pointed ears, tundra wolves' are more rounded. Timber wolves fur is shorter and more dense than that of the tundra wolf. The tundra wolves legs are longer and their feet are broader for traveling on deep snow at higher elevations.
Interbreeding occurs frequently where subspecies meet. Controversy occurs readily among taxonomists when it comes to identifying subspecies. Some scientists become "splitters" and recognize many subspecies, while others are" lumpers" and group several subspecies into one and thus recognize fewer subspecies.