Italian wolf

		Italian wolf
		He is a wild animal


Origin			Italy
Translation			Francis Vandersteen

The possession of this animal is not authorized Royal Decree establishing the list of mammals not kept for production purposes that may be kept (M.B. 24.08.2009)

The Italian wolf, also known as the Apennine wolf, was first described in 1921 as the Canis lupus italicus subspecies of the common gray wolf by Italian zoologist Joseph Altobello. However, in 1999, it was recognized as a distinct species of Canis lupus. There is currently some dispute as to whether Canis lupus italicus is a subspecies of grey wolf or the real species, Canis italicus.

The Italian wolf is found mainly in the Apennine mountains of Italy. They have been found within 40 km of Rome. Recently, they have become established in southern France and parts of Switzerland.

By gray wolf standards, the Italian wolf is considered a medium-sized subspecies. They range from 1 to 1.40 m in length and weigh from 24 to 40 kg. Females are around 10% smaller than males. Italian wolves are generally a mixture of gray and brown. Although rarely seen, black wolves have been spotted in the Mugello region and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.

Italian wolves are known to hunt at night, feeding mainly on small and medium-sized animals such as wild boar, roe and red deer, chamois, elk, hare and rabbit. They also feed on plants, berries and grasses for fiber. When in the suburbs, wolves feed on garbage, livestock and domestic animals.

Due to the scarcity of large prey, wolf packs in Italy are often smaller, consisting of a breeding pair and a few young.

Young wolves generally stay with their biological family until they are old enough to start a family of their own. Mating season is usually around mid-March. Gestation lasts 60 days, after which the mother gives birth to 2 to 7 pups.

In the late 1920s, wolves across the Alps and Sicily were wiped out. Their numbers were also severely reduced in the Apennine regions, all due to fierce persecution. The wolf population in Italy continued to decline until the early 1970s, when Luigi Boitani and Eric Zimen undertook a study of the wolf in the Abruzzo mountains, east of Rome. As a result, the World Conservation Union expressed great interest in the wolf, listing it in the IUCN Red Book of Threatened Species. The population of Italian wolves in the wild has since grown to between 500 and 600, and is expected to increase by 7 percent a year.

Their greatest apparent threat at present is a large number of wolf-dog hybrids that are altering the genetic integrity of the Italian wolf. A captive breeding program has been launched by biologists. However, further controls on the number of domestic dogs are absolutely necessary.