Sicilian wolf
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SPECIES
Canis lupus cristaldii

The Sicilian wolf (Canis lupus cristaldii ) (Sicilian: lupu sicilianu) is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was endemic to Sicily. It was paler than the mainland Italian wolf and comparable in size to the extant Arabian wolf and extinct Japanese wolf. The subspecies reportedly went extinct due to human persecution in the 1920s, though there were several possible sightings up to the 1970s. It was identified as a distinct subspecies in 2018 through morphological examinations of the few remaining mounted specimens and skulls, as well as mtDNA analyses.

Appearance

The Sicilian wolf was a slender, short-legged subspecies with light, tawny coloured fur. The dark band present on the forelimbs of the mainland Italian wolf are absent or poorly defined in the Sicilian wolf. Measurements taken from mounted museum specimens show that adults had a mean head to body length of 105.4 cm and a shoulder height of 54.6 cm, thus making them slightly smaller than the mainland Italian wolf, which measures 105.8-109.1 cm long and 65–66.9 cm high at the shoulder.

Distribution

Geography

Sicilian wolf habitat map
Sicilian wolf habitat map
Sicilian wolf
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Coloring Pages

References

1. Sicilian wolf Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_wolf

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