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The gray wolf or grey wolf (Canis lupus) is a species of canid native to the wil derness and remote

areas of North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. It is the largest member of its family, with males averaging 43 45 kg (95 99 lb), and females 36 38.5 kg (79 85 lb).[3] It is similar in general appearance and proportions to a G erman shepherd,[4] or sled dog, but has a larger head, narrower chest, longer le gs, straighter tail and bigger paws.[5] Its winter fur is long and bushy, and pr edominantly a mottled gray in colour, although nearly pure white, red, or brown to black also occur.[4] Within the genus Canis, the gray wolf represents a more specialised and progress ive form than its smaller cousins (the coyote and golden jackal), as demonstrate d by its morphological adaptations to hunting large prey, its more gregarious na ture[6] and its highly advanced expressive behavior.[7][8] It is a social animal , travelling in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair, accompanied by the pair's adult offspring.[9] The gray wolf is typically an apex predator throughou t its range, with only humans and tigers[10][11][12][13] posing a serious threat to it. It feeds primarily on large ungulates, though it also eats smaller anima ls, livestock, carrion, and garbage.[14] The gray wolf is one of the world's most well researched animals, with probably more books written about it than any other wildlife species.[15] It has a long h istory of association with humans, having been despised and hunted in most agric ultural communities due to its attacks on livestock, while conversely being resp ected by some Native American tribes.[14] It is the sole ancestor of the dog, wh ich was first domesticated in the Middle East.[16] Although the fear of wolves i s prevalent in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to animals suffering from rabies. Non-rabid wolves have att acked and killed people, mainly children, but this is unusual, as wolves are rel atively few, live away from people, and have been taught to fear humans by hunte rs and shepherds.[17] Hunting and trapping has reduced the species' range to abo ut one third[clarify], though its still relatively widespread range and stable p opulation means that the species is not threatened at a global level, and is the refore classified by the IUCN as Least Concern.[1] Although dogs and wolves are genetically very close, and have shared vast portio ns of their ranges for millennia, the two generally do not voluntarily interbree d in the wild,[37] though lone wolves may fraternise with guard or herding dogs as surrogate pack members.[45] They can produce viable offspring, with all subse quent generations being fertile.[37] In North America, black colored wolves acqu ired their coloration from wolf-dog hybridization, which occurred 10,000 15,000 ye ars ago.[46] Although wolf-dog hybridisation in Europe has raised concern among conservation groups fearing for the wolf's purity, an analysis on the mtDNA sequ ences show that introgression of dog genes into European wolf populations does n ot pose a significant threat. Also, as wolf and dog mating seasons do not fully coincide, the likelihood of wild wolves and dogs mating and producing surviving offspring is small.[47] Like pure wolves, hybrids breed annually, though their m ating season occurs three months earlier, with pups mostly being born in the win ter period, thus lessening their chances of survival.[37] Although it is popularly believed that some Inuit tribes mate their sled dogs to wolves in order to improve their stamina, this is probably untrue, as wolf hybr ids are generally unable to cooperate effectively in pulling harnesses, and thei r stamina is much less than that of sled dogs.[48] The captive breeding of wolfdog hybrids has proliferated in the USA, with 300,000 such animals being present there.[37] The most commonly used dog breeds for this purpose are of the spitz group.[49] At least two wolf-dog breeds have been created in Europe, the Saarloo swolfhond and the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog,

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