Great Plains wolf
Great Plains wolf | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | Canis |
Species: | C. lupus |
Subspecies: | C. l. nubilus
|
Trinomial name | |
Canis lupus nubilus | |
Distribution of great plains wolf | |
Synonyms[4] | |
variabilis (Wied-Neuwied, 1841)[3] |
The Great Plains wolf (Canis lupus nubilus), also known as the buffalo wolf or loafer, is a subspecies of gray wolf that once extended throughout the Great Plains, from southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada southward to northern Texas in the United States.[5] The subspecies was thought to be extinct in 1926, until studies declared that its descendants were found in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.[6] They were described as a large, light-colored wolf but with black and white varying between individual wolves, with some all white or all black. The Native Americans of North Dakota told of how only three Great Plains wolves could bring down any sized bison.[7]
Taxonomy
This wolf was first recorded in 1823 by the naturalist Thomas Say in his writings on Major Stephen Long's expedition to the Great Plains. Say was the first person to document the difference between a "prairie wolf" (coyote) and on the next page of his journal a wolf which he named Canis nubilus. He described one of these wolves that had been caught in a trap:
Canis nubilus. Dusky, the hair cinereous at base, then brownish-black then gray, then black; the proportion of black upon the hairs, is so considerable, as to give to the whole animal a much darker colour, than the darkest of the latrans, but the gray of the hairs combining with the black tips, in the general effect produce a mottled appearance; the gray colour predominates on the lower part of the sides; ears short, deep brownish-black, with a patch of gray hair on the anterior side within; muzzle blackish above; superior lifjs, anterior to the canine teeth, gray; inferior jaw at tip and extending in a narrowed line backwards, nearly to the origin of the neck, gray; beneath dusky ferruginous, greyish with long hair between the hind thighs, and with a large white spot on the breast; the ferruginous colour is very much narrowed on the neck, but is dilated on the lower part of the cheeks; legs brownish- black, with but a slight admixture of gray hairs, excepting on the anterior edge of the hind thighs, and the lower edgings of the toes, where the gray predominates; the tail is short, fusiform, a little tinged with ferruginous, black above near the base and at tip, the tip of the trunk hardly attaining to the os calcis; the longer hairs of the back, particularly over the shoulders, resemble a short sparse mane.....The aspect of this animal is far more fierce and formidable than either the common red wolf, or the prairie wolf, and is of a more robust form.[2]
In 1995, the American mammalogist Robert M. Nowak analyzed data on the skull morphology of wolf specimens from around the world. For North America, he proposed that there were only five subspecies of gray wolf. One of these he described as a moderate-sized wolf that was originally found from Texas to Hudson Bay and from Oregon to Newfoundland which he named C. l. nubilus.[8][9] This proposal was not recognized in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World (2005), which classified this wolf as one of the 27 subspecies of Canis lupus in North America.[4]
Lineage
A
A study published in 2018 looked at the limb morphology of modern and fossil North American wolves. The major limb bones of the
Ancestor
In 2021, a mitochondrial DNA analysis of North American wolf-like canines indicates that the extinct Late Pleistocene Beringian wolf was the ancestor of the southern wolf clade, which includes the Mexican wolf and the Great Plains wolf. The Mexican wolf is the most ancestral of the gray wolves that live in North America today.[18]
Description
The Great Plains wolf's distribution once extended throughout the Great Plains from southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan southward to northern Texas.[5]
They are described as a large, light-colored wolf but with black and white varying between individual wolves, with some all white or all black. The average body length ranges from 1.4 m (4.6 ft) to 1.96 m (6.4 ft) [19][20] with a weight of the male averaging 100 lb (45 kg) and the heaviest recorded at 150 lb (68 kg). The Native Americans of North Dakota told of how only three of these wolves could bring down a buffalo, including a large old bull.[7]
Early records indicate C. l. nubilus being very abundant throughout the Great Plains. After the mass extirpations of the American bison (Bison bison), they were poisoned and trapped for their pelts until few remained. The pioneer Alexander Henry wrote about these wolves several times during his trips to North Dakota, noting how they fed extensively on buffalo carcasses. They were bold around humans, sometimes approaching people and entering their tents while they slept. He recorded that Indians occasionally dug up wolf pups from their prairie dens and dug large pitfalls to capture wolves and foxes. Members of his group dug up wolf pups and found them very tame and easy to train. In 1833 Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied recorded that these wolves were common in the upper Missouri, where the Indians operated wolf pits and traded wolves to him in exchange for two rolls of tobacco each. He found the Indian's dogs to be more of a personal danger than the wolves.[7]
In 1856, Lt. G. K. Warren gathered together a collection of this wolf's skulls which now reside in the National Museum of Natural History.[7] He noted that some wolf skull specimens appeared not to be full-blooded wolves as their molars indicated a hybrid. There have been many stories in this region about ferocious hybrid wolf-dogs, and it is possible that the wolf's tameness and lack of fear of humans might be due admixture with domestic dogs. In North Dakota, by 1875 sightings of the wolf became rare, by 1887 they were almost gone.[7] On the Canadian Prairies, bounty payments for wolves commenced in 1878 in Manitoba, and 1899 in Saskatchewan and Alberta.[21] In North Dakota, two were sighted in 1915 by Remington Kellogg. The last known wolf was shot in 1922.[7] The Great Plains wolf was declared extinct in 1926. However, later studies found wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan that were descendants of Canis lupus nubilus. Even then, their number became fewer and fewer until they were federally protected as an endangered species in 1974. Since then, their population became larger in the Great Lakes region and by 2009, their estimate grew to 2,992 wolves in Minnesota, 580 in Michigan and 626 in Wisconsin. A R [19][20][6]
See also
References
- ^ "Canis lupus nubilus".
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC): Not at Risk (4/1/1999)
- ^ a b Say, T. et al. (1823) Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819 and '20 : by order of the Hon. J.C. Calhoun, sec'y of war: under the command of Major Stephen H. Long. From the notes of Major Long, Mr. T. Say, and other gentlemen of the exploring party. Philadelphia : H.C. Carey and I. Lea ... p. 169-173.
- ^ Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied (1841). Reise in das innere Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834. Vol. 2. Coblenz. p. 95.[Trip to the interior of North America 1832 to 1834]
- ^
- ^ ISBN 978-0-307-81913-0.
Great Plains wolf; buffalo wolf; loafer. This is another extinct subspecies. It once extended throughout the Great Plains from southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan southward to northern Texas.
- ^ S2CID 132793403.
- ^ a b c d e f A Biological Survey of North Dakota, Vernon, B., (1926), North American Fauna: Number 49: pp. 150–156.
- ISBN 0-226-51696-2.
- ^ Another look at wolf taxonomy Nowak, R.M. 1995. Pp. 375–397 in L.N. Carbyn, S.H. Fritts and D.R. Seip, eds. Ecology and conservation of wolves in a changing world: proceedings of the second North American symposium on wolves. Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
- ^ PMID 29343558.
- S2CID 88740690.
- S2CID 14039133. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-12-28. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
- ISBN 978-1-118-96858-1.
- ISBN 978-93-81588-64-2.
- PMID 26229286.
- ISBN 978-0199545667.
- ^ S2CID 11343074.
- PMID 34257949.
- ^ a b "Great Plains Wolf". www.wolfquest.org.
- ^ a b "Great Plains Wolf". wolf-stuff.com.
- PMID 26479482.
External links
Data related to Canis lupus nubilus at Wikispecies
Canis lupus nubilus
(Great Plains wolf).