Natural History

Black wolf

A black wolf is a melanistic colour variant of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Black specimens were recorded among red wolves (Canis rufus), though the colour phase in this species is now extinct. Genetic research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California, Los Angeles revealed that wolves with black pelts owe their distinctive coloration to a mutation which occurred in domestic dogs, and was carried to wolves through wolf-dog hybridization. Besides coat and knee colour, they are normal grey wolves.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Great Lakes Aquarium
• ▸Koi
• ▸Eastern pygmy possum

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.