British Columbia wolf

British Columbia wolf
Melanistic C. l. columbianus, Lower Post, British Columbia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Canis
Species:	C. lupus
Subspecies:	C. l. columbianus
Trinomial name
Canis lupus columbianus Goldman, 1941

The British Columbia wolf (Canis lupus columbianus) is a possible subspecies of gray wolf which occurs throughout much of British Columbia, west of the Rocky and Stikine mountains. It was first classed as a distinct subspecies in 1941 by Edward Goldman, who described it as being a large subspecies, with a skull closely resembling that of C. l. pambasileus, and whose fur is generally of a cinnamon-buff color.^[1]

As of 2005,^[2] it is considered a valid subspecies by MSW3, though it is classed as a synonym of C. l. occidentalis by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.^[3]

References

1. ↑ Goldman, E. A. (1941), Three new Wolves from North America, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 54: 109- 113
2. ↑ Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. 
3. ↑ Chambers SM, Fain SR, Fazio B, Amaral M (2012). "An account of the taxonomy of North American wolves from morphological and genetic analyses". North American Fauna 77: 1–67. doi:10.3996/nafa.77.0001. Retrieved 2013-07-02.