Pacific Coastal Wolf

[Blackfoot]

The Pacific Coastal Wolf

Pacific Coastal Wolf (also known as coastal wolves, rainwolves, west coast wolves and Great Bear Rainforest wolves) applies to a genetically distinct variation of Gray Wolf (canis lupus) living on the west coast of North America. They have not yet been granted the status of an official wolf subspecies.
Seeing as the Coastal Shores Pack was inspired by these unique wolves, I decided we ought to to have a nice little topic to both educate members about and discuss them

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Where do they live?:
Coastal Wolves mainly populate the Great Bear Rainforests of British Columbia, right on the fringes of the Pacific Ocean. Their territories often consist of inlets, shallows, island and shore. Populations living closer to the inland will often make their home next to rivers and ponds. Certain populations have been recorded as far as Alaska, but these are a genetically distinct variety of Coastal Wolf known as Alaskan Coastal Wolves.


What do they look like?:
Coastal wolves are smaller and darker-furred, often having a tinge of red to their coats. The typical coloration is a mixture of sandy and tan colors, with tinging of grays, darker browns and blacks (some haven been known to have a blueish flecking) and a reddish hue. They'll often have a light underside of the face and cheeks, as well as lighter markings on the chest, legs and underbellies. Dark brown, dark silver, cream and black Coastal Wolves have also been recorded, but are less common. Coastal Wolf eyes are typically dark gold, brown, or yellow.
Coastal Wolves are several inches smaller and several pounds lighter than their inland cousins, and have a lighter, narrower build to them with smaller heads and manes. Like many bird-retrieving dogs, they have much more prominently webbed paws than most wolves. Their tails are skinnier and much stronger than inland wolves (similiar to that of a Labrador Retriever's), enabling them to use their tails to steer in the water much the way an otter would.

(Alaskan Coastal Wolves: The Alaskan varieties do not differ much from the B.C variety, although they are known to be slightly larger with creamier pelts.)



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Behavior:
Like all wolves, Coastal Wolves live in packs of around 2-20, usually consisting of a dominant male and female and their pups. Wolves wanting to start their own packs will disperse and find mates of their own. Dominants are the only members of the pack to bear young. Coastal Wolves have been observed having much more tight-knit families than most wolves, often being compared more to African Wild Dogs than Gray Wolves.
Like most wolves, mates court each other in the winter, and pups are born in the spring after about 3 months of pregnancy. Coastal Wolves tend to have pups a little earlier, since there is more cover from snow and cold in their regions. Coastal Wolf pups have a slightly lower mortality rate due to the high amounts of cover in their territory. Another hypothesis is that they are less at risk from predators, since bears often steer toward the plentiful of fish that become available during the pup season.
Coastal Wolves have a similiar life span to Gray Wolves.





What do they hunt?:
Like most wolves, they'll hunt large game such as deer and moose (elk, caribou and bison are not plentiful that close to the ocean), and rodents and birds like rabbits and murrelets. However, unlike most inland wolves, coastal wolves rely heavily on marine resources for their food (nearly 75% of their diet comes from marine resources). This includes fish, seals, sea lions, beached whales, otters, beavers, clams, mussels, crabs, octopus and squid and barnacles.
Coastal Wolves are an important ally to the old growth forests, leaving the nitrogen-rich carcasses of the salmon they hunt to help fuel the growth of the trees. They have developed a salmon-catching strategy much like that of a grizzly bears, and are nearly as successful as grizzlies at catching them.





Intelligence:
Both captive and wild populations have been observed with having higher levels of intelligence than other wolf species. Captive wolves were observed being able to solve puzzles faster than the other captive wolves, and wild wolves are recorded as using intelligence and technique to help take down large game and marine prey (such as otters and seals). It was proposed Coastal Wolves developed a higher intelligence to use in hunts in order to make up for their lack of size and strength.


Threats:
The isolated territory of the rain wolves has protected them from hunting, and the 'wolf wars' which nearly destroyed their inland cousins. Nowadays, most of these wolves are protected from hunting. However, B.C's booming logging and fishing industries, whale poaching, and the boom in B.C bear populations are threatening the territories of these wolves and destroying their heavily relied upon marine food sources.

Check out more!

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D325M5VE0BA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnd88-yKLvU&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D325M5VE0BA


Read more:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.raincoast.org%2Fprojects%2Fwolves%2F&ei=U9xoUOSbBaTviQLB-YDQCA&usg=AFQjCNFQiqGDQdXCqBFY_KOaLUyd2BRcsw&sig2=S_I1Jz_hXCzv3BWNcByj4w

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CCkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Forcabook.com%2Fseawolves%2Finfo.html&ei=U9xoUOSbBaTviQLB-YDQCA&usg=AFQjCNHW6CInszs8HAlI023vUGE6-PqpFg&sig2=ehtuumdCQFg6M1dHTX529g

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[Laika]

OOh this was a nice read. <3

[Randen]

Very cool to learn about the wolves our pack is based on! Good job and thanks for posting it 'Foot!
And seen as this sparked my interest, I looked up these fine creatures and found this video. Its of coastal wolves (of course) and even the song fits. xD

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=w4yl5uUPRAc

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