Indian wolf

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Indian Wolf
Indian wolf near Ankara, Turkey
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Family:
Canidae
Genus:
Canis
Species:
Canis lupus
Subspecies:
C. l. pallipes
Trinomial name
Canis lupus pallipes
Sykes, 1831

The Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) is a gray wolf subspecies inhabiting the Middle East and south-western Asia.[1]

Some experts have suggested at least some C. lupus pallipes populations be re-classified a canid species distinct from C. lupus. Other experts believe it may be the wolf subspecies from which the domestic dog evolved, pointing to its small size and comparatively docile behaviour, although they are also known man-eaters. While their populations are stable or increasing in some countries, in others they may be endangered. C. l. pallipes has been featured in different roles in different west Asian cultures; treated as vermin or menace in some times and places, respected and protected in others.

Characteristics

An adult and cub at Mysore Zoo.

Indian wolves are generally smaller than European wolves, being 3 ft (91 cm) in length and 26 in (66 cm) high at the shoulder, while the tail is 16 to 18 in (41 to 46 cm) long. The pelage is shorter than that of northern wolves, and has little to no underfur.[2] Fur colour ranges from greyish red to reddish white with black tips. The dark V shaped stripe over the shoulders is much more pronounced than in northern wolves. The underparts and legs are more or less white.[3] The skins of Indian wolves in the British Museum are almost invariably browner than those of European wolves.[4] Indian wolves, like Arabian wolves, have short, thin fur in summer, though the hair on their back remains long even in summer. It is thought that this is an adaptation against solar radiation. The winter coat is long, though not as long as northern subspecies.[5] The contour hairs on the shoulder measure 50–85 mm in length, 35–65 mm on the flanks. Even the longest hairs never reach the same lengths as those of the Tibetan wolf.[6]

In their western range, Indian wolves can be distinguished from Arabian wolves by their larger size, darker fur, and proportionately larger heads.[7] Some specimens may exhibit fused pads on the third and fourth toes. The frequency of these fused paw pads can be as high as 100% in India, 80-90% in the western part of the Arabian peninsula and 20% in northern Palestine.[8] In northern Israel, Indian wolves are split into two different populations known as "Mediterranean pallipes" for those living in areas with over 400 mm of rainfall, and "Desert pallipes" for those in areas with under that amount. Specimens from the former kind of habitat tend to be the largest.[9]

Distribution and habitat

The distributional range of Indian wolves extends from south of the Himalayas in India and Pakistan to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Syria, Turkey, Israel to the Sinai in Egypt.[1]

Ecology and behaviour

Indian wolves do not form large packs like northern wolves, though they have been shown to better tolerate crowding conditions in captivity. Their social structure is similar to that of dingoes and coyotes than northern wolves.[8] Packs typically consist of a nuclear family of six to eight animals, though pairs are more common.[2] They tend to breed from mid-October to late December. The cubs are born blind with floppy ears and a white mark on the chest which disappears with age.[10]

Indian wolves typically prey on antelopes, rodents and hares.[11] Indian wolves usually hunt in pairs when targeting antelopes. When hunting them, a single wolf will distract the herd with its presence, acting as a decoy, while its pack mate(s) attack(s) from behind.[12]

A similar behaviour was noted by Sir Walter Elliot when wolves attacked sheep: the main pack would kill and drag off a sheep while the others distracted the herding dogs. When working in packs, Indian wolves have been known to use ambush tactics: Walter Elliot observed three wolves chasing a gazelle herd through a ravine where two other wolves were lying in wait. It was popularly believed by ryots that prior to such a hunt, the ambushing wolves would dig holes and lie in them to conceal themselves from the herd running towards them. This behaviour was confirmed by McMaster, who observed wolves lying in wait in holes while an antelope herd approached them. In India, wolves hunting alone are known as Won-tola.[2]

Population

Israel has a stable population of 150 protected wolves, both of the Indian and Arabian subspecies. Saudi Arabia has a stable population of 300-600 wolves which are given no legal protection. Turkey has an unknown number of wolves thought to be as high as 1,000. It is not known if they are increasing or decreasing. There are currently no recent or reliable estimates on wolf populations in Iran.[13] Syria has a lingering population of both Eurasian and Indian wolves which probably number between 200-300.[10]

India has a decreasing population of roughly 1,000 wolves which are legally protected.[13] In India, the Indian Wolf is mainly distributed across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. A study released in 2004 estimates that there are around 2000-3000 Indian Wolves.[14] The Indian wolf, because it takes children and preys on livestock, has long been hunted, though it is protected as an endangered species in India under schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.[15] In India, wolves are mainly found outside of protected reserves and feed mainly on domestic animals, like goat or sheep. However, in areas, where natural prey is still abundant, like for example in Velavadar National Park, they prefer natural prey species.[16]

Taxonomic history

Indian wolf skull from the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris

The Indian wolf was first described in 1831 by the British ornithologist William Henry Sykes under the binomial Canis pallipes.[17] 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.[18]

In 1941 the British taxonomist Pocock subordinated both to Canis lupus under the trinomials Canis lupus pallipes and Canis lupus laniger, respectively.[6] 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.[8] 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.[18]

Indian wolves, along with Arabian and Tibetan wolves, are among the wolf subspecies generally suspected to have been the main ancestors of domestic dogs.[9] 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.[8] They seldom howl, unlike northern wolves.[10] [19]

Relationships with humans

See also: Gray wolf § Relationships with humans

Attacks on humans

According to Robert Armitage Sterndale, wolves in India were seldom said to attack adults. He mentioned merely an old woman having been killed.[2]

Indian wolves have a history of preying on children, a phenomenon called "child-lifting". In 1878, 624 people were killed by wolves in Uttar Pradesh, and 14 others were killed in Bengal during the same period.[20] In 1900, 285 people were killed in the Central Provinces.[21] Between 1910-1915, 115 children were killed by wolves in Hazaribagh, and 122 were killed in the same area in 1980-1986. In Jaunpur, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, wolves killed 21 children and mauled 16 others from March 27, 1996 to July 1, 1996. Between April 1993 and April 1995, five wolf packs attacked 80 children, 20 of whom were rescued, in Hazaribagh, West Koderma and Latehar Forest Divisions. The children were taken primarily in the summer period in the evening hours, and often within human settlements.[20]

In Iran, wolf attacks have been reported for millennia. As with India, there are many cases of wolves making off with small children. Adults have been attacked on occasion, including a recent incident in which a policeman was killed and partially eaten by three wolves after dismounting his horse to relieve himself.[22] On January 2, 2005 in the village of Vali-Asr, near the town of Torbat Heydariya, northeastern Iran, a wolf pack attacked a homeless man in front of witnesses. Although the police intervened, the man died of his wounds.[23] In early November 2008, a wolf attacked an 87-year-old woman in the village cemetery of Kashan in central Iran, biting off one of her fingers, but was suffocated to death when she fought back.[24]

Hunting

A miniature, depicting a wolf hunt in ancient Persia

In India, Hindus traditionally considered the hunting of wolves, even dangerous ones, as taboo, for fear of causing a bad harvest. The Santals however considered them fair game, as with every other forest dwelling animal.[25] During British rule in India, wolves were not considered game species, and were killed primarily in response to them attacking game herds, livestock and people. In 1876, in the North-West Provinces and Bihar State, 2,825 wolves were killed in response to 721 fatal attacks on humans.[26] Two years later, 2,600 wolves were killed in response to attacks leaving 624 humans dead.[27] Wolf exterminations remained a priority in the NWP and Awadh through to the 1920s, due to the fact that wolves were reportedly killing more people than any other predator in the region. Female cubs were bountied for 12 Indian annas, while males for 8. Higher rewards of 5 rupees for each adult and one for each cub were favoured in Jaunpur. In Gorakhpur, where human fatalities were highest in summer, the reward for an adult wolf was 4 rupees, with 3 for a cub. Acts of fraud were quite common, with some bounty hunters presenting golden jackals or simply exhuming the bodies of bountied wolves and presenting them to unsuspecting magistrates for rewards. Overall, it is thought that up to 100,000 wolves were killed in British India between 1871-1916.[26]

Mythology and literature

Wolves are occasionally mentioned in Hindu mythology. In the Harivamsa, Krishna, in order to convince the people of Vraja to migrate to Vrindavan, creates hundreds of wolves from his hairs, which frighten the inhabitants of Vraja into making the journey.[28] In the Rig Veda, Rijrsava is blinded by his father as punishment for having given 101 of his family's sheep to a she-wolf, who in turn prays to the Ashvins to restore his sight.[29] Bhima, the voracious son of the god Vayu, is described as Vrikodara, meaning "wolf-stomached".[30] In Persian mythology, wolves were a creation of the evil spirit Ahirman.[29] In Turkic mythology, the she-wolf Asena is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism".[31] The legend tells of how after a battle, only an injured young boy survives. Asena finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. One of these, Ashina, becomes their leader and founds the Ashina clan that ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires.[32][33] The Bible contains thirteen references to wolves, which are usually used as metaphors for greed and destructiveness.[7] Indian wolves take a central role in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books, in which a pack in the Sioni area adopts the feral child Mowgli and teaches him how to survive in the jungle whilst protecting him from the tiger Shere Khan and the marauding dhole.

References

  1. ^ a b Sillero-Zubiri, C., Hoffmann, M., Macdonald, D. W. (eds). (2004). Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
  2. ^ a b c d Sterndale, R. A. (1884). NO. 245. Canis Pallipes in: Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon. Thacker, Spink and Co., Bombay, London.
  3. ^ Mivart, S. G. J. (1900). The Common Wolf. Pages 3–17 in: Dogs, jackals, wolves, and foxes: a monograph of the Canidae R.H. Porter, London
  4. ^ Lydekker, R. The great and small game of India, Burma, and Tibet by revised edition, published by Asian Educational Services, 1996
  5. ^ Harrington, F. H. Paul C. Paquet (1982). Wolves of the World: Perspectives of Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. p. 474. ISBN 0-8155-0905-7.
  6. ^ a b Pocock, R.I. (1941). Canis lupus pallipes Pages 90–94 in: Fauna of British India: Mammals Volume 2. Taylor and Francis, London
  7. ^ a b Bright, M. (2006). Beasts of the Field: The Revealing Natural History of Animals in the Bible. p. 346. ISBN 1-86105-831-4.
  8. ^ a b c d Hemmer, H. (1983). Domestikation, Verarmung der Merkwelt. Vieweg, Braunschweig. ISBN 3-528-08504-5. (in English: Domestication: the decline of environmental appreciation, translated by Neil Beckhaus, Edition: 2, illustrated. Published by Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-521-34178-7, ISBN 978-0-521-34178-3)
  9. ^ a b Dayan, T. Early Domesticated Dogs of the Near East Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University
  10. ^ a b c Grey Wolf Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758
  11. ^ Predation on Blackbuck by Wolves in Velavadar National Park, Gujarat, India
  12. ^ The living animals of the world; a popular natural history with one thousand illustrations Volume 1: Mammals, by Cornish, C. J. (Charles John), 1858-1906; Selous, Frederick Courteney, 1851-1917; Johnston, Harry Hamilton, Sir, 1858-1927; Maxwell, Herbert, Sir, published by New York, Dodd, Mead and Company
  13. ^ a b L. David Mech & Luigi Boitani (2001). Wolves: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation. p. 448. ISBN 0-226-51696-2.
  14. ^ "Yadvendradev V. Jhala". Conservation of Indian Wolf. Retrieved August 19, 2006. [dead link]
  15. ^ "Wolf Corner". Sub Species of the Wolf. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  16. ^ M. Singh & H. N. Kumara: Distribution, status and conservation of Indian gray wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in Karnataka, India. Journal of Zoology, Volume 270, Issue 1, pages 164–169, September 2006 online link
  17. ^ Sykes, H. (1831). Canis pallipes. Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of London, Part I: 101.
  18. ^ a b "Smithsonian National Zoological Park". Hiding in Plain Sight. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  19. ^ Lindsay, S. R. (2000). Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training: Adaptation and learning. Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 0-8138-0754-9, ISBN 978-0-8138-0754-6, 410 pages
  20. ^ a b Rajpurohit, K.S. Child Lifting: Wolves in Hazaribagh, India
  21. '^ Burton, R.G. A Book of Man Eaters Mittal Publications.
  22. ^ Mader, T. R. Wolf Attacks on Humans Research Division
  23. ^ Homeless man eaten by wolves in Iran
  24. ^ Wolf slain by 87-year-old Iranian woman
  25. ^ Maclean, C. (1980). The Wolf Children. p. 336. ISBN 0-14-005053-1.
  26. ^ a b Knight, J. (2004). Wildlife in Asia: Cultural Perspectives. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-7007-1332-5.
  27. ^ Bright, M. (2002). Man-Eaters. p. 304. ISBN 0-312-98156-2.
  28. ^ Wilson, H. H., Hall, F. (1868). The Vishńu Puráńa: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition. Trubner
  29. ^ a b Krishna Murthy, K. (1985). Mythical animals in Indian art. Abhinav Publications, ISBN 0-391-03287-9
  30. ^ Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic by W. J. Wilkins, published Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7661-8881-7
  31. ^ Wink, A. (2002). Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-391-04173-8. Page 65.
  32. ^ Findley, Carter Vaughin. The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-517726-6. Page 38.
  33. ^ Roxburgh, D. J. (ed.) (2005). Turks, A Journey of a Thousand Years. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Page 20.
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