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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK |
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WOLF (Canis lupus) , the common English name for any wild member of the typical section of the genus Canis (see CARNIVORA). Excluding some varieties of domestic dogs, wolves are the largest members of the genus, and have a wide geographical range, extending over nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, and North America from Greenland to Mexico , but are not found in South America or Africa, where they are replaced by other members of the family. They present great diversities of size, length and thickness of fur, and coloration, although resembling each other in all important structural characters. These differences have given rise to a supposed multiplicity of species, expressed by the names C. lycaon (Central Europe), C. laniger and C. niger (Tibet), the C. occidentalis, C. nubilus, C. mexicanus, &c., of North America, and the great blackish-brown Alaskan C. pambasileus, the largest of them all. But it is doubtful whether these should be regarded as more than local varieties. In North America there is a second distinct smaller species, called the coyote or prairie-wolf (Canis latrans), and perhaps the Japanese wolf (C. hodophylax) may be distinct, although, except for its smaller size and shorter legs, it is scarcely distinguishable from the common species. The wolf enters the N.W. corner of India, but in the peninsula is replaced by the more jackal-like C. pallipes, which is probably a member of the jackal group, and not a wolf at all.The ordinary colour of the wolf is yellowish or f ulvous grey, but almost pure white and entirely black wolves are known. In northern countries the fur is longer and thicker, and the animal generally larger and more powerful than in the southern portion of its range. Its habits are similar everywhere and it is still, and has been from time immemorial, especially known to man in all the countries it inhabits as the devastator of sheep flocks. Wolves do not catch their prey by lying in ambush, or stealing up close and making a sudden spring , but by fairly running it down in open chase, which their speed and remarkable endurance enable them to do. Except during summer when the young families of cubs are being separately provided for by their parents, they assemble in troops or packs. often in relays, and by theircombined and persevering efforts are able to overpower and kill deer, antelopes and wounded animals of all sizes. It is singular that such closely allied species as the domestic dog and the Arctic fox are among the favourite prey of wolves, and, as is well known, children and even full-grown people are not in-frequently the objects of their attack when pressed by hunger. Notwithstanding the proverbial ferocity of the wolf in a wild state, many instances are recorded of animals taken when quite young becoming tame and attached to the person who has brought them up, when they exhibit many of the ways of a dog. They can, however, rarely be trusted by strangers.The history of the wolf in the British Isles, and its gradual extirpation, has been thoroughly investigated by Mr J. E. Harting in his work on Extinct British Animals, from which the following account is abridged. To judge by the osteological remains which the re-searches of geologists have brought to light, there was perhaps scarcely a county in England or Wales in which, at one time or another, wolves did not abound, while in Scotland and Ireland they must have been still more numerous. The fossil remains which have been discovered in Britain are not larger than, nor in any way to be distinguished from, the corresponding bones and teeth of European wolves of the present day. Wolf-hunting was a favourite pursuit of the ancient Britons as well as of the Anglo- Saxons
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It is owing to their position that the British Islands have been able to clear themselves of these formidable and destructive animals, for France, with no natural barriers to prevent their incursions from the continent to the east, is liable every winter to visits from numbers of these animals. (W. H. F. ; R. L. *) End of Article: WOLF (Canis lupus) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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