Wolves - Artensterben

The Hokkaido wolf, one of two wolf subspecies that went extinct in Japan, was captured in this illustration by the English zoologist St. George Mivart in 1890. (© Mivart, St. George Jackson (30 November 1827 – 1 April 1900), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

18. August 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Hokkaidō Wolf

Harmful animals in Hokkaido In Japanese mythology, both the extinct Honshu wolf and the Hokkaido wolf, also known as the Ezo wolf, are revered as benevolent beings. One legend, similar to the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus, recounts that a son of Fujiwara no Hidehira, a 12th-century Japanese noble

Depiction of a Falkland Islands wolf from Iconographica Zoologica – Special Collections (1868) from the University of Amsterdam. The Argentinean warrah and the Falkland Islands wolf must have looked morphologically quite similar due to their close relationship. (© Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

15. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Argentinean Warrah

How the Argentinean warrah became the Falkland Islands wolf During the last ice age, around 16,000 years ago, a few Argentinean warrahs used shallow, frozen parts of the sea to travel from South America to the Falkland Islands, 500 kilometers away. Over time, the Argentinean warrah on the Falkland Islands

Falklandwolf (Dusicyon australis) im Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden

A specimen of the Falkland Islands wolf collected in 1843. It is now located at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden (Netherlands). (© Dusicyon australis (Kerr, 1792), collected in Falkland Islands (Malvinas) by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0 1.0, via GBIF)

Mammals

6. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Falkland Islands wolf

How did the Falkland Islands wolf reach the Falkland Islands? As early as 1690, British visitors to the Falkland Islands wondered about the only land mammal living there among all the small creatures. There were not even mice there. What did this wolf feed on? The British naturalist Charles Darwin,

An illustration of the Honshu wolf created between 1833 and 1850 by Philipp Franz von Siebold. (© Carl Hubert de Villeneuve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

9. June 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Honshū Wolf

Island dwarfism led to the smallest subspecies of the wolf The extinct Honshū wolf, which was only found on the Japanese islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, is considered the smallest subspecies of the wolf. Its body length was about 90 centimeters, and its shoulder height was 56 centimeters. The

A drawing of the Florida wolf by James Audubon from the book The viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845 to 1848). (© John James Audubon (Life time: 1785-1851), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

1. March 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Florida Red Wolf

The Florida red wolf did not have red fur The Florida red wolf does not bear this name because of its fur color, which was black, but because it is now considered an extinct subspecies of the red wolf (Canis rufus). This was not always the case. At first, the