There are 38 subspecies of Canis lupus listed in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World (2005, 3rd edition). 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 (Canis lupus lupus).
Taxonomy In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published in his Systema Naturae the binomial nomenclature – or the two-word naming – of species. Canis is the Latin word meaning "dog", and under this genus he listed the dog-like carnivores including domestic dogs, wolves, and jackals. He classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris, and on the next page he classified the wolf as Canis lupus. Linnaeus considered the dog to be a separate species from the wolf because of its head, body, and cauda recurvata – its upturning tail – which is not found in any other canid.
In 1999, a study of mitochondrial DNA indicated that the domestic dog may have originated from multiple wolf populations, with the dingo and New Guinea singing dog "breeds" having developed at a time when human populations were more isolated from each other. In the third edition of Mammal Species of the World published in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft listed under the wolf Canis lupus some 36 wild subspecies, and proposed two additional subspecies: familiaris Linnaeus, 1758 and dingo Meyer, 1793. Wozencraft included hallstromi – the New Guinea singing dog – as a taxonomic synonym for the dingo. Wozencraft referred to the mDNA study as one of the guides in forming his decision, and listed the 38 subspecies under the biological common name of "wolf", with the nominate subspecies being the Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus) based on the type specimen that Linnaeus studied in Sweden. However, the classification of several of these canines as either species or subspecies has been challenged by the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group in 2019, a 2020 Trends in Ecology & Evolution literature review, and the American Society of Mammalogists in 2021.
List of extant subspecies Living subspecies recognized by MSW3 and divided into Old World and New World:
Eurasia and Australasia Sokolov and Rossolimo (1985) recognised seven Old World subspecies of wolf. These were C. l. lupus, C. l. albus, C. l. pallipes, C. l. cubanenesis, C. l. campestris, C. l. chanco and C. l. desertorum In his 1995 statistical analysis of skull morphometrics, mammalogist Robert Nowak recognized the first four of those subspecies, synonymized campestris, chanco and desertorum with C. l. lupus, but did not examine the two Japanese subspecies. In addition, he recognized C. l. communis as a subspecies distinct from C. l. lupus. In 2003, Nowak also recognized the distinctiveness of C. l. , C. l. hattai, C. l. italicus, and C. l. hodophilax. In 2005, MSW3 included C. l. filchneri. In 2003, two forms were distinguished in southern China and Inner Mongolia as being separate from C. l. chanco and C. l. filchneri and have yet to be named.
+ Eurasian and Australasian subspecies of Canis lupus Subspecies Image Authority Description Range Taxonomic synonyms C. l. albusTundra wolf Kerr, 1792 A large, light-furred subspecies.Heptner, V. G. & Naumov, N., P. (1998) Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears), Science Publishers, Inc., USA, pp. 182-184, Northern tundra and forest zones in the European and Asian parts of Russia and Kamchatka. Outside Russia, its range includes the extreme north of Scandinavia. dybowskii Domaniewski, 1926, kamtschaticus Dybowski, 1922, turuchanensis Ognev, 1923 C. l. arabsArabian wolf Pocock, 1934 A small, "desert-adapted" subspecies that is around 66 cm tall and weighs, on average, about 18 kg. Its fur coat varies from short in the summer to long in the winter, possibly because of solar radiation. Southern Palestine, southern Israel, southern and western Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (Sinai Peninsula). C. l. campestrisSteppe wolf Dwigubski, 1804 An average-sized subspecies with short, coarse and sparse fur.Heptner, V. G. & Naumov, N., P. (1998) Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears), Science Publishers, Inc., USA, pp. 188-89, Northern Ukraine, southern Kazakhstan, the Caucasus and the Trans-Caucasus bactrianus Laptev, 1929, cubanenesis Ognev, 1923, desertorum Bogdanov, 1882 C. l. chancoHimalayan wolf & Mongolian wolf Gray, 1863 Himalayan Wolf: Long sharp face, elevated brows, broad head, large pointed ears, thick woolly pelage and very full brush of medial length. Above, dull earthy-brown; below, with the entire face and limbs yellowish-white. Mongolian Wolf: The fur is fulvous, on the back longer, rigid, with intermixed black and gray hairs; the throat, chest, belly, and inside of the legs pure white; head pale gray-brown; forehead grizzled with short black and gray hairs.Himalayan Wolf: The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau predominating above 4,000 metres in elevation Mongolian Wolf: Mongolia, northern and central China, Korea, and the Ussuri River region of Russia niger Sclater, 1874, filchneri Matschie, 1907, karanorensis Matschie, 1907, tschiliensis Matschie, 1907, coreanus Abe, 1923, dorogostaiskii Skalon, 1936 C. l. dingoDingo and New Guinea singing dog Meyer, 1793 Generally 52–60 cm tall at the shoulders and measures 117 to 124 cm from nose to tail tip. The average weight is 13 to 20 kg. Fur color is mostly sandy- to reddish-brown, but can include tan patterns and can also be occasionally light brown, black or white. Australia and New Guinea antarticus Kerr, 1792 [suppressed ICZN O451:1957], australasiae Desmarest, 1820, australiae Gray, 1826, dingoides Matschie, 1915, macdonnellensis Matschie, 1915, novaehollandiae Voigt, 1831, papuensis Ramsay, 1879, tenggerana Kohlbrugge, 1896, hallstromi Troughton, 1957, harappensis Prashad, 1936
Sometimes included within Canis familiaris when the domestic dog is recognised as a species. C. l. familiarisDomestic dogbut refer Synonyms Linnaeus, 1758The domestic dog is a divergent subspecies of the gray wolf and was derived from an extinct population of Late Pleistocene wolves. Through selective pressure and selective breeding, the domestic dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. Worldwide in association with humans Increasingly proposed as the species Canis familiaris but debated C. l. italicusItalian wolf Altobello, 1921 The pelt is generally of a grey-fulvous colour, which reddens in summer. The belly and cheeks are more lightly coloured, and dark bands are present on the back and tail tip, and occasionally along the fore limbs. Native to the Italian Peninsula; recently expanded into Switzerland and southeastern France. lupus Linnaeus, 1758 C. l. lupusEurasian wolf(nominate subspecies) Linnaeus, 1758 Generally a large subspecies with rusty ocherous or light gray fur.Heptner, V. G. & Naumov, N., P. (1998) Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. II Part 1a, SIRENIA AND CARNIVORA (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears), Science Publishers, Inc., USA, pp. 184-87, Has the largest range among wolf subspecies and is the most common subspecies in Europe and Asia, ranging through Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Caucasus, Russia, China, and Mongolia. Its habitat overlaps with the Indian wolf in some regions of Turkey. altaicus Noack, 1911, argunensis Dybowski, 1922, canus Sélys Longchamps, 1839, communis Dwigubski, 1804, deitanus Cabrera, 1907, desertorum Bogdanov, 1882, flavus Kerr, 1792, fulvus Sélys Longchamps, 1839, kurjak Bolkay, 1925, lycaon Trouessart, 1910, major Ogérien, 1863, minor Ogerien, 1863, niger Hermann, 1804, orientalis Wagner, 1841, orientalis Dybowski, 1922 C. l. pallipesIndian wolf Sykes, 1831 A small subspecies with pelage shorter than that of northern wolves and with little to no underfur. Fur color ranges from grayish-red to reddish-white with black tips. The dark V-shaped stripe over the shoulders is much more pronounced than in northern wolves. The underparts and legs are more or less white.A monograph of the canidae by St. George Mivart, F.R.S, published by Alere Flammam. 1890India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, northern Israel, and northern Palestine C. l. signatusIberian wolf Cabrera, 1907 A subspecies with slighter frame than C. l. lupus, white marks on the upper lips, dark marks on the tail, and a pair of dark marks on its front legs. Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes northwestern Spain and northern Portugal lupus Linnaeus, 1758
North America
For North America, in 1944 the zoologist Edward Goldman recognized as many as 23 subspecies based on morphology. In 1959, E. Raymond Hall proposed that there had been 24 subspecies of lupus in North America.The Mammals of North America, E. Raymond Hall & Keith R. Kelson, Ronald Press New York, 1959 In 1970, L. David Mech proposed that there was "probably far too many subspecific designations...in use", as most did not exhibit enough points of differentiation to be classified as separate subspecies.Mech, L. David. 1970. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis The 24 subspecies were accepted by many authorities in 1981 and these were based on morphological or geographical differences, or a unique history.The Mammals of North America, E. Raymond Hall, Wiley New York, 1981 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 the wolf. These include a large-toothed Arctic wolf named C. l. arctos, a large wolf from Alaska and western Canada named C. l. occidentalis, a small wolf from southeastern Canada named C. l. lycaon, a small wolf from the southwestern U.S. named C. l. baileyi and a moderate-sized wolf that was originally found from Texas to Hudson Bay and from Oregon to Newfoundland named C. l. nubilus.
The taxonomic classification of Canis lupus in Mammal Species of the World (3rd edition, 2005) listed 27 subspecies of North American wolf, corresponding to the 24 Canis lupus subspecies and the three Canis rufus subspecies of Hall (1981). The table below shows the extant subspecies, with the extinct ones listed in the following section.