The Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) is one of the world’s most endangered and evolutionarily distinct grey wolf populations according to a study by the University of California, Davis.
The Indian wolf species is found specifically in lowland India and Pakistan where they’re constantly threatened by human encroachment and urbanization of forests and natural habitats. Their population numbers have dwindled between 2,000 to 3,000. There are likely more tigers in India than Indian wolves, highlighting how endangered the Indian wolf populations are.
The authors sequenced genomes of four Indian and two Tibetan wolves and included 31 additional canid genomes, which revealed that Tibetan and Indian wolves are distinct from each other and from other wolf populations. Indian and western Asian wolf populations are currently considered as one population. The study’s finding that Indian wolves are distinct from western Asian wolves indicates their distribution is much smaller than previously thought.
The study recommends that Indian and Tibetan wolf populations be recognized as evolutionarily significant units that would help prioritize their conservation while their taxonomic classification is re-evaluated.
Both Tibetan and Indian wolves stem from an ancient lineage that predates the rise of Holarctic wolves found in North America and Eurasia. The study indicates that Indian wolves could represent the most ancient surviving lineage of wolves.
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