The Baffin Island wolf (''Canis lupus manningi''), also known as the Baffin Island tundra wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf which resides exclusively on

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

and several nearby islands. It was not formally recognized as a subspecies until 1943, when it was given its

taxonomic classification In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

by Anderson. This wolf is recognized as a subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' in the taxonomic authority ''

Mammal Species of the World ''Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference'' is a standard reference work in mammalogy giving descriptions and bibliographic data for the known species of mammals. It is now in its third edition, published in late 2005, ...

(2005)''.

Physiology

Description

The Baffin Island wolf is described as being light coloured, sometimes white, and unusually small, as compared to other wolf subspecies. It is proposed to be the smallest of all

Arctic wolf The Arctic wolf (''Canis lupus arctos''), also known as the white wolf or polar wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesmere Island.https://ecore ...

types. It is currently endangered."Paleoeskimo Dogs of the Eastern Arctic" – Arctic, Vol. 55, No. 1 (March 2002)
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History

Early records and evidence suggest that the wolves in western

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

migrated there from Baffin Island and are, thus, descendants of the Baffin Island wolf subspecies. In 1966, a study was conducted on the Baffin Island wolf, of which a preliminary assessment had been made the year before in 1965 at

Wordie Bay Wordie Bay is a bay which lies between Cape Berteaux and Mount Guernsey, to the west of the Wordie Ice Shelf, on the Fallières Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names ...

, by the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. It was helped by students from the university as well.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q736878 Mammals of Canada Arctic land animals Subspecies of Canis lupus Mammals described in 1943