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This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

	Wolf is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on October 31, 2005, and on June 7, 2020.
Article milestones Date Process Result August 22, 2005 Peer review Reviewed August 29, 2005 Featured article candidate Promoted September 19, 2007 Featured article review Demoted November 10, 2009 Peer review Reviewed April 1, 2012 Good article nominee Listed January 12, 2020 Peer review Reviewed March 30, 2020 Featured article candidate Promoted Current status: Featured article

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Section sizes Section size for Wolf (36 sections) Section name Byte count Prose size (words) Header Total Header Total (Top) 5,515 5,515 404 404 Etymology 1,087 1,087 104 104 Taxonomy 2,452 12,476 80 1,065 Subspecies 1,455 1,455 172 172 Evolution 5,863 5,863 461 461 Admixture with other canids 2,706 2,706 352 352 Description 3,483 7,691 131 746 Pelage 4,208 4,208 615 615 Ecology 14 12,936 0 1,429 Distribution and habitat 1,168 1,168 141 141 Diet 5,011 5,011 483 483 Interactions with other predators 4,021 4,021 500 500 Infections 2,722 2,722 305 305 Behaviour 66 15,618 0 1,591 Social structure 4,199 4,199 534 534 Communication 2,312 2,312 274 274 Reproduction 4,327 4,327 465 465 Hunting and feeding 3,701 3,701 224 224 Intelligence and cognition 1,013 1,013 94 94 Status and conservation 1,388 9,918 153 695 North America 2,433 2,433 288 288 Eurasia 6,097 6,097 254 254 Relationships with humans 32 17,382 0 2,176 In culture 19 7,027 0 898 In folklore, religion and mythology 3,245 3,245 382 382 In fable and literature 3,763 3,763 516 516 Conflicts 175 9,876 20 1,222 Predation on livestock 2,428 2,428 260 260 Competition with dogs 2,211 2,211 290 290 Attacks on humans 3,306 3,306 466 466 Human hunting of wolves 1,756 1,756 186 186 Wolves as pets and working animals 447 447 56 56 Notes 27 27 0 0 References 43,064 43,064 0 0 Bibliography 1,898 1,898 0 0 External links 1,311 1,311 0 0 Total 128,923 128,923 8,210 8,210

Just thought I'd post this quote from L. David Mech in response to the 27 July addition to the article:
In the recent past, wolves were labeled a flagship species or an umbrella, indicator, or keystone species, depending on what conservation market one was trying to penetrate... A flagship species is an attraction to nearly all society's strata, but wolves are not welcomed by all factions of society. With a few rare exceptions, the rural world opposes wolves, so the animal's flagship role is restricted primarily to urbanites or to local areas. Wolves are certainly a powerful flagship species for the conservation movement, particularly that of affluent societies with strong lobbies in large cities, but a true flagship species should be able to move an entire society toward a goal.
Neither are wolves a good umbrella species (i.e., a species, usually high in the ecological pyramid, whose conservation necessarily fosters that of the rest of the chain) in that they can live well on a variety of food resources and in areas with an impoverished prey base. Wolves are not a keystone species either, in that they are not essential for the presence of many other species (e.g., herbivores flourish in areas devoid of wolves). And wolves are not necessarily indicators of good habitat quality or integrity because they are too generalist to be good indicators of the presence of a pristine trophic chain.
Mech, L. D., and Boitani, L. (Editors). 2003. Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. University of Chicago Press. pp. 341-344. ISBN 0-226-51696-2
I guess this hinges on what definition of keystone species is being used in the sources provided in the addition.
Mariomassone (talk) 19:58, 27 July 2025 (UTC)Reply

I can't edit, someone who can, please add the old German name Wolfram = "Wolf-Raven" to the list. Thanks! 92.217.184.213 (talk) 14:04, 1 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Canis lupus is a paraphyletic group, and canis familiaris is cladistically included in canis lupus as canis lupus familiaris but traditionally excluded from canis lupus Cantthinkofanyusername (talk) 06:54, 1 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

At the start of the article it mentions canis lupis also known as the grey wolf, this could spread disinformation as they are many sub-species of wolves and despite the grey wolves being the dominant species it cannot be just assumed to be "also known as" ~2026-22795-28 (talk) 04:55, 13 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Grey wolf = Canis lupus. There is no issue here. Mariomassone (talk) 10:54, 13 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Also, the hatnote directing readers to wolf (disambiguation) handles what you are asking for. - UtherSRG (talk) 14:15, 13 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

The text below the cladogram needs to state that this cladogram was "based on 20 nuclear genes". That the wolf and coyote split 1.1 million years ago is laughable based on recent whole genome sequencing, but I note that the reference cited (Koepfli, 2015) is over a decade old. ~2026-42230-19 (talk) 06:56, 4 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

Under Evolution, the article states that "The divergence time for wolves in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia is estimated to be fairly recent at around 1,600 years ago." The Fan 2016 reference said no such thing.

Fan said "The divergence of New and Old World wolves is the oldest of these events at 12,500 ya, followed by divergence of Eastern and Western Eurasian wolves at 11,700 ya. The divergence times between sequences from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia fall within a relatively short period of time of ∼1600 yr." The divergences occurred within a period of 1,600 years, and not 1,600 years ago. ~2026-42230-19 (talk) 10:52, 4 August 2026 (UTC)Reply