Alexander Archipelago wolf

Alexander Archipelago wolf
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Canis
Species:	C. lupus
Subspecies:	C. l. ligoni
Trinomial name
Canis lupus ligoni Goldman, 1937

The Alexander Archipelago wolf (Canis lupus ligoni), also known as the Islands wolf, is a subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus. The coastal wolves of south-east Alaska inhabit the area that includes the Alexander Archipelago, its islands, and a narrow strip of rugged coastline that is biologically isolated from the rest of North America by the Coast Mountains.

The Tongass National Forest comprises about eighty percent of the region. In 1993, a petition to list the Alexander Archipelago wolf as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act was lodged with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency decided in 1997 that listing was not warranted at that time. In the interim, a multi-agency conservation assessment of the species was published. In 2011 a second petition to list the species as either threatened or endangered was filed with the Fish and Wildlife Service. It referenced scientific studies and other information that had arisen over the intervening fourteen years. In March 2014, in response to the petition, the agency made a positive initial finding that listing the species as threatened or endangered "may be warranted," and that it will prepare a formal status review.

Early taxonomists were able to determine that the Alexander Archipelago wolf was its own unique subspecies due to "common cranial characteristics". It has been suggested more recently by taxonomists that the species may have originated from another subspecies known as Canis lupus nubilis.

As of 2005^[update], Canis lupus ligoni is considered a valid subspecies by MSW3, however it is classed as a synonym of C. l. nubilus by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

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