Greenland wolf

Greenland wolf
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
Subspecies: C. l. orion
Trinomial name
Canis lupus orion
Pocock, 1935[1]

The Greenland wolf (Canis lupus orion) is a subspecies of gray wolf[2] native to Greenland and the Queen Elizabeth Islands. In Greenland, more than 90% of the wolf's range falls within the boundaries of the Northeast Greenland National Park, where the wolf population was estimated in 1998 to be 55 wolves due to lack of prey.[3] In eastern Greenland between by 1899 and 1939, a small population of an estimated 38 wolves were poisoned to extinction.[4] However, wolves are now protected in Greenland and by 2011 have re-established a population of 23 wolves in eastern Greenland. These were established through single and pairs of wolves following military dog-sled patrols from the northeast over distances of up to 560 kilometers.[5]

Evolution and Taxonomy

Nowak suggested that during the Late Pleistocene two types of wolf evolved in the ice-free north of the Wisconsin glaciation, one in the Peary Land refugium in the far north of Greenland, the other in Alaska. Once the ice receded, the Peary Land wolves spread across Greenland and the Queen Elizabeth Islands. The Alaskan wolves spread to become the northern wolves referred to as Canis lupus arctos. Other wolves from south of the ice sheet would move north to interact with the northern wolves.[6][7]

The oldest wolf remains in Greenland date to 7,600 years ago, however they may have been there earlier because their main prey, the caribou, date to 8,900 years ago.[8]

Because of its close proximity to the range of the Arctic wolf, the Greenland wolf has been disputed as being a truly separate subspecies. One author proposed that the Greenland wolf migrated from Canada by crossing the frozen sea ice between the two regions, and another has documented wolves on the ice when the Nares Strait froze.[7] In 2016, a study of mitochondrial DNA sequences indicated that the Greenland wolves belong to one haplotype that had been previously found among North American wolves, which indicates their origin from North America.[9]

Description

The subspecies is described as being small to medium in length (155 cm) but extremely light in weight (26 kg). However, this understanding of the size of the Greenland wolf is derived from only five specimens that were caught in winter, so their light weight could be attributed to malnutrition. The wolves of Greenland and Ellesmere Island prey on any easily obtainable species, with hare forming an important foods source. The wolf has been documented preying on seal in both Greenland and the Queen Elizabeth Islands, and there are documented eye-witness accounts of musk-ox killings from the Queen Elizabeth islands and from Greenland where two musk-ox calves were killed by a wolf pair.[7]

No fear of humans

The wolves on Ellesmere Island do not fear humans, which is thought to be due to them seeing humans so little, and they will approach humans cautiously, curiously and closely.[10][11][12][13]

References

  1. ↑ "Canis lupus orion Pocock, 1935". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. ↑ Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 532–628. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. ↑ Marquard-Petersen, Ulf (2009). "Abundance, social organization, and population trend of the arctic wolf in north and east Greenland during 1978–1998". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 87 (10): 895. doi:10.1139/Z09-078.
  4. ↑ Decline and Extermination of an Arctic Wolf Population in East Greenland, 1899 – 1939 by ULF MARQUARD-PETERSEN. ARCTIC VOL. 65, NO. 2 (JUNE 2012) P. 155–166
  5. ↑ Marquard-Petersen, Ulf (2011). "Invasion of eastern Greenland by the high arctic wolf Canis lupus arctos". Wildlife Biology. 17 (4): 383. doi:10.2981/11-032.
  6. ↑ Nowak, R.M. 1983. A perspective on the taxonomy of wolves in North America. In: Carbyn, L.N., ed. Wolves in Canada and Alaska. Canadian Wildlife Service, Report Series 45:lO-19.
  7. 1 2 3 "The Wolf (Canis lupus) in Greenland: A Historical Review and Present Status". Arctic. 39 (2): 119–132. 1986. doi:10.14430/arctic2059.
  8. ↑ Early Holocene Plant and Animal Remains from North-East Greenland, Ole Bennike, Svante Bjorck, Jens Bocher, Louise Hansen, Jan Heinemeier and Barbara Wohlfarth. Journal of Biogeography Vol. 26, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 667-677.
  9. ↑ Ersmark, Erik; Klütsch, Cornelya F. C.; Chan, Yvonne L.; Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S.; Fain, Steven R.; Illarionova, Natalia A.; Oskarsson, Mattias; Uhlén, Mathias; Zhang, Ya-Ping; Dalén, Love; Savolainen, Peter (2016). "From the Past to the Present: Wolf Phylogeography and Demographic History Based on the Mitochondrial Control Region". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 4. doi:10.3389/fevo.2016.00134.
  10. ↑ Arctic Wolf: The High Arctic by Laura DeLallo. Bearport Publishing, New York 2011
  11. ↑ Arctic wildlife in a warming world by Michael Becker. BBC Two, 2014.
  12. ↑ Ellesmere Island Journal & Field Notes by Henry Beston 2006. International Wolf Centre.
  13. ↑ Arctic Wolves and Their Prey by L. David Mech. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory, Actic Zone. 2004
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