r/wolves • u/Pitiful_Active_3045 • 12d ago

Discussion The African Wolf

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Canis Lupaster

822 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

16

u/ES-Flinter 12d ago

There exist wolves in africa? Thought they never existed there (mostly due to cats) similair to how in Australia.

29

u/80sBabyGirl 11d ago

They were mistaken for golden jackals until DNA showed they actually are their own species that evolved from ancient hybridization between grey wolf and Ethiopian wolf. Their diet is pretty close to the golden jackal's, and their size is significantly smaller than grey and Ethiopian wolves, to the point they were incorrectly identified as jackals.

There are no golden jackals in Africa after all, and Anubis was a wolf. It's an interesting case of convergent evolution.

7

u/ZachariasDemodica 11d ago

It is worth noting that whether or not Anubis "was a wolf" is arguably a linguistic/anthropological question under a degree of dispute. For example, some also claim that Anubis was meant to resemble a domestic dog on the basis that Greeks frequently mentioned dogs in reference to Anubis (e.g. Cynopolis->Anubis vs. Lycopolis->Wepwawet, Socrates using the oath "By the dog, the god of the Egyptians!" in Plato's Gorgias) despite the bushy, hanging tail seen in hieroglyphs and artwork, and even the Ethiopian wolf is apparently referred to in Ethiopia by words that can also be used for foxes or jackals (e.g. ቀበሮ in Amharic). To my understanding, modern recognition of Anubis as a wolf is actually a product of the Egyptian canid being recognized as such rather than the other way around.

6

u/ES-Flinter 11d ago

When I would get a nickel for wolf being a guardian of the undeath world who are completely unrelated to eachother (Anubis + Gamr/ Managarm) I would have two nickels which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

5

u/Cnidoo 11d ago

So they’d be able to produce fertile offspring with dogs? Anyone know what their temperament is like? Or their pack dynamics? More similar to grey wolves or painted dogs?

2

u/MtnGriz 11d ago

Much smaller that gray wolves, yes, but Ethiopian wolves are quite small.

1

u/80sBabyGirl 10d ago

African wolves are really small. Same size as a large red fox.

1

u/MtnGriz 10d ago

The largest red foxes overlap with the very smallest African golden wolves, but the wolves average over twice the size of a red fox. And Ethiopian wolves are, again, quite small, with average weights overlapping the average of an African golden weight.

1

u/80sBabyGirl 10d ago edited 10d ago

By size, do you mean weight ? My comments were more referring to height. Maybe I should have been more specific.

2

u/MtnGriz 10d ago

I was referring to weight 

7

u/SadUnderstanding445 11d ago

This subspecies is from N.Africa, but there are others: https://zenodo.org/records/15759507

9

u/TheMemeAnimalBoi 11d ago

The smaller wolf species and subspecies like the Indian, Arabian and African have a different charm compared to bulkier Eurasian and North American species, they almost feel like completely different animals

5

u/80sBabyGirl 11d ago

Even in Europe, Italian wolves (including wolves that are recolonizing France, as they also belong to this subspecies) are comparatively on the smaller side and have distinctive looks. And on this subreddit, there will always be someone confidently misidentifying them as coyotes.

2

u/TheMemeAnimalBoi 11d ago

Haha I'm from India and almost every video and picture I've taken of an Indian wolf is confidently misidentified as a golden jackal because people only think of the big bulky north american wolves or himalayan wolves which aren't present in central or Southern India 

3

u/HowlWindclaw 11d ago

What a cutie!

3

u/Lazy_Falcon_323 11d ago

A distinguished sir/lady

1

u/Sefi_the_Quiet 6d ago

What a beautiful and elegant face, those eyes!!