Eastern Timber Wolf

Facts about Eastern Timber Wolfs. "Scientific name for Eastern Timber Wolf is Canis lupus lycaon". The Eastern Timber Wolf is a Canid, which means that the wolf comes from the carnivorans lineage that comprises wolves, dogs, jackals, foxes, and several other extinct and extant dog-like animals. The Eastern Timber Wolf breed belongs to the Canis genus of the Canidae family and they are native to the Great Lakes region of the northeastern parts of North America. Scientific name for Eastern Timber Wolf breed is Canis lupus lycaon and they are also called the Eastern Wolf, the Great Lakes Wolf, Deer Wolf, or the Algonquin Wolf.

Currently, the Eastern Timber Wolf is recorded as a Species of Special Concern, owing its wide-ranging hybridization with both coyotes and gray wolves. The Eastern Timber Wolf breed is particularly vulnerable to hybridization, owing to its close association with the coyote and its skill to bridge the flow of gene between both gray wolves and coyotes. In addition, human harassment for more than a period of 400 years, resulted in the decline in population of these wolf breeds that reduced the amount of appropriate mates, hence, enabling the coyote gene. Apart from posing a threat to an exclusive species, the resulting hybrids of the Eastern Timber Wolf and the coyote are very small in body size to surrogate pure Eastern Timber Wolves as top predators of deer and moose.

Origin of Eastern Timber Wolf

The taxonomic identity of the Eastern Timber Wolf has been the subject of debate, with many dissimilar theories have been existing about its foundation, including that it is a sub variety of the Gray Wolf, it is an effect of coyote- gray wolf hybridization, it is conspecific with the Red Wolf, and that it is a distinctive species. Up to 2005, the Eastern Timber Wolf is still accepted as a subspecies of the Gray Wolf, though it was categorized as a separate species in 2013 by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States, following a comprehensive review of quite a lot of genetic studies. These studies designated that the Eastern Timber Wolf evolved in North America, not like the Gray Wolf that originated in Eurasia, and deviated from a common forerunner with the red wolf and coyote some 150,000 to 300,000 years ago.

Features of Eastern Timber Wolf

The Eastern Timber Wolf is an average-sized canid, which is similar to the Red Wolf, is halfway in size between the Northwestern Wolf and the coyote, which is a North American canid. The Eastern Timber Wolf breeds have occupied most homes and topography excluding high mountaintops and deserts, including swamp borders, forest edges, second development boreal forests, and regions interspersed with woodland openings and fields. The Eastern Timber Wolf breed was almost eliminated by the early 1900s all through its historic collection in the northeastern parts of the United States. Even though there are unverified sightings of Eastern Timber Wolf in Maine and Vermont, and an established shooting of a wolf during 1993 in Maine, there is no proof of breeding activity in the area.

Diet of Eastern Timber Wolf

The Eastern Timber Wolf is a carnivorous animal, and it chiefly feeds on white-tailed deer, but it may occasionally feed on beaver and moose.

The average lifespan of the Eastern Timber Wolf ranges from 9 years to 12 years in the wild, whereas in the captive, they can live up to 20 years.