Animal Unique | Eurasian Wolf | Eurasian wolf, also known as the European, common, or Forest Wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, which is the largest assortment among wolf subspecies and is the most common in Europe and Asia, passing through Mongolia, China, Russia, Scandinavia, Western Europe and the Himalayas. The largest population is still found in Eastern European countries like Romania, Poland and the Balkans. In the past, Eurasian wolves have been exterminated throughout Central and Northern European countries in the 19th century, the number of wolves in Europe now slowly recovering naturally with France, Germany, Sweden and Norway is recolonised.
Compared to their North American cousins, Eurasian wolves tend to stay longer, higher placed ears, narrower head, more slender loins and coarser, tawnier colored coat. Compared with Indian wolves, Eurasian wolves are larger and have longer, broader skulls. The coat is generally coarser than that of wolves the U.S., with less soft wool blended with, and the mane is much more pronounced. The summer coat is a mix of ocherous and rusty ocherous tones with light gray. The hairs are tipped with black, and are especially pronounced on the back, forming a dark stripe down the spine. The sides and on the outside of the legs white. The muzzle is pale gray-ocherous, while the circumference of the lower lips and cheeks are white. The neck ocherous with black-tipped fur on top. The winter coat is generally brighter color, as a result of the more prominent undercoat. Ocherous tones are less pronounced, to make smoky gray tones.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
Subspecies: C. l. lupus
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
Subspecies: C. l. lupus
The size of the Eurasian wolves is subject to geographical variation with animals in Russia and Scandinavia that are larger and bulkier than those in Western Europe. The extensive habitat reduction and displacement of large prey, European wolf packs are generally smaller than North American. Because of their long association with the urban civilizations, Eurasian wolves tend to be more flexible than the North American wolves in the face of human expansion, southern European wolves live successfully in areas with a much higher human densities than North American wolves will tolerate.
In contrast to the wolves in North America, many Eurasian wolf population forced to exist largely on livestock and garbage in areas with dense human activity, even though wild ungulates such as moose, deer and wild boar are still important food sources in Russia and the more mountainous regions of Eastern Europe. Other prey species are deer, mouflon, bison, Saiga, ibex, chamois, ibex, deer and musk deer. In Scandinavia, moose are their most common prey in forested areas, while the deer predominate in agricultural soils. Wild reindeer are the primary food source for wolves live in the tundra of Siberia, while the elk are addressed in the taiga zones.
In Roman mythology, wolves were sacred to Mars and a wolf known as Lupa was said to have raised Romulus and Remus, the traditional founders of Rome. Lupa was also used for female prostitutes and priestesses of a wolf goddess, leading to an alternative theory that the "wolf" was human. Wolves play an important role in Norse mythology, especially the mythological Fenrir wolves, Skoll and Hati. Fenrir, the son of Loki and Angrboða, served a dual role in Norse mythology, as the maimer of Tyr, and as the killer of Odin at Ragnarok. In Irish mythology, wolves appear in the form of Airitech three daughters slain by Cas Corach.
Animal Unique