Indian Wolf - Taxonomic History

Taxonomic History

The Indian wolf was first described in 1831 by the British ornithologist William Henry Sykes under the binomial Canis pallipes. In 1888, the British naturalist Blanford working for the Geological Survey of India, described the Indian wolf as a separate species from the grey wolf and distinguished Canis pallipes from Canis laniger (the Himalayan wolf) by its smaller size, much shorter and thinner winter coat, and smaller skull and teeth.

In 1941 the British taxonomist Pocock subordinated both to Canis lupus under the trinomials Canis lupus pallipes and Canis lupus laniger, respectively. Today, the Himalayan wolf initially described by Hodgson in 1847 (C. lupus laniger) is generally considered to be part of the Eurasian wolf subspecies, C. lupus lupus, whereas the Indian wolf (C. lupus pallipes) is considered to be a subspecies, or a species in its own right.

Indian wolves are likely of a much older lineage than northern wolves. Morphologically, Indian wolves greatly resemble primitive European wolves from 500,000 years ago. Recent DNA research suggests that Indian wolf populations in lowland peninsular India have not interbred significantly with any other wolf population for nearly 400,000 years, which could possibly make them an altogether separate species from the grey wolf.

Indian wolves, along with Arabian and Tibetan wolves, are among the wolf subspecies generally suspected to have been the main ancestors of domestic dogs. The basis for this is that Indian wolves share several characteristics with dogs which are absent in northern wolves: their brains are proportionately smaller than northern wolves, their carnassials weaker, and their eyes are larger and rounder. Their vocalisations also include a higher proportion of short, sharp barking. Their small size and less aggressive demeanor in captivity than northern wolves would have made them much easier to tame. They seldom howl, unlike northern wolves.