Charles Hamilton Smith wrote that black wolves were generally less aggressive than ordinary kinds, and interbred with dogs more readily. Cuvier noted that European black wolves differed little in size from other colour morphs, but exceeded them in physical strength. Also, the last wolf in Scotland, supposedly killed by MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain, is usually narrated as having been black. Their pelts were considered exotic enough to be sold for three to four times the price established for more common colour morphs. These wolves were completely black and were bigger than the more common grey variety. Höggberg, a medical practitioner at Karlstad mentioned five black wolves being killed in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1801. Black wolves were considered rare in northern Europe however, Dr. However, in fact, 'Rossomak' in Russian exactly corresponds with the English 'wolverine', a mustelid species, in English ( Gulo gulo in Latin).

Colonel Smith erroneously believed that the so-called 'Rossomak' of the Lenas in Siberia was of the same variety. Black wolves were also reported in Siberia as the Vekvoturian Mountain-wolf. They also occurred in the mountains of Friuli ( Italy) and around Kotor ( Montenegro). Black wolves were considered rare in France, but common in Southern Europe at the time, with black wolf populations south to the Pyrenees apparently outnumbering other colour morphs. Cuvier and other naturalists largely followed his example. Linnaeus gave the black wolves of Europe the binomial name Canis lycaon, under the assumption that the species was distinct from grey- and white-coloured wolves. Besides coat and knee colour, they are normal grey wolves.Įarly encounters and speculation Europe 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. Black specimens were recorded among red wolves ( Canis rufus), though the colour morph in this species is probably now extinct. The function of the black pigment is largely unknown.Ī black wolf is a melanistic colour variant of the gray wolf ( Canis lupus). Skin of a black-coloured wolf taken from the Mackenzie Valley.

Black wolf red leopard