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Video: Indian wolf: description of the subspecies, distribution, characteristics
2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54
Indian wolf, aka Asian or Iranian - a species that once flourished, but is currently quite small. Like many other animals around the globe, it is threatened with extinction due to extermination by hunters and the destruction of their habitual habitat by people due to land development. Where does the Indian wolf live? What does this animal eat, what lifestyle does it lead? All this will be briefly discussed in the article.
View description
The Indian wolf, also called landgoy (Canis lupus pallipes), is a subspecies of the gray wolf. It is smaller than its more famous counterpart. The weight of this animal is from 25 to 32 kilograms, and at the withers it grows up to 45-75 centimeters (for comparison: the weight of an ordinary gray wolf can be 80 kilograms, and the height at the withers is 90 centimeters). Body length - up to 90 centimeters, tail - 40-45.
Indian wolf coat color (photopresented in the article) - not gray, but brown, can vary to rusty-reddish. This protective coloration allows the animal to blend in with the surrounding landscape and be invisible to enemies and prey. The fur on the back of the animal has black tips, so this part of the body visually looks darker. The fur is thick and short, and the whitish undercoat is very thin, almost absent, which allows the wolves to avoid overheating in hot climates. On the inner parts of the limbs and the belly, the color is lighter.
The ancient small Indian wolf and the Howarth, a domestic breed of dog common in the Middle Ages, are considered the progenitors of German Shepherds.
Habitat
Indian wolves are widespread in India, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon. Several hundred individuals live in Saudi Arabia. In India, their number reaches two thousand, in Turkey - seven.
In Israel, these animals are protected by law. Their number in this country is only 150-200 individuals. In Turkey, since 1937, Indian (Asian) wolves have been officially considered pests, and hunting for them has not been limited. This led to a significant decrease in the population, and since 2003 the species was forced to be protected, and hunting for it was prohibited.
In India, the hunting and trapping of wolves has been officially banned since 1973. All individuals of Indian wolves in the country are protected by law.
Behaviors
Indian wolves are social animals. They usually gather in flocks of 6-8 pieces, butthey can stay alone. Unlike gray wolves, they howl extremely rarely, sometimes they can bark. Most of the time, these animals do not make any sounds.
These predators hunt almost any mammals and birds, but prefer ungulates - sheep, antelopes, goats. Packs living close to human settlements may attack cattle and dogs. But the main part of their diet is still wild animals. Landgas and marmots do not disdain, and sometimes large carrion. There are cases of Indian wolves attacking people, although they are rare.
According to research results, a wolf needs from 1.08 to 1.88 kilograms of food per day. They hunt most often in a pack, and a strict distribution of roles is observed: one part of the wolves drives the prey, the other waits for it in ambush. But hunting can also take place in pairs, as well as alone, when the animal, according to local residents, patiently ambushed prey for hours, waiting for it to approach the throw distance.
Life expectancy of representatives of this species in the wild is 10-12 years.
Reproduction
These animals become sexually mature at the age of one or two years. The breeding season of Indian wolves is October-December. Cubs are born blind. Their ears are hanging at birth, gradually straightening. The mother breastfeeds them for up to a month.
The color of the fur of the cubs is brownish, their chest is milky white. At the age of about six weeks, it begins to darken, and graduallythe white color disappears. From the age of four months, wolf cubs no longer remain in the den, but accompany their parents everywhere, including hunting. The family usually consists of parents and young of the last litter.
In conclusion
The article briefly described the Asian, also known as the Indian wolf. Despite the damage, and sometimes very significant, that this animal inflicts on people, in some countries it is taken under protection, which has increased the number of populations. Today, Indian wolves are threatened not only by extermination, but also by hybridization, primarily with domestic dogs. Therefore, people need to take care of the conservation of this species and its genetic purity.
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