Tibetan wolf
| Tibetan wolf | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species: | C. lupus |
| Subspecies: | C. l. filchneri |
| Trinomial name | |
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Canis lupus filchneri Matschie, 1907 |
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| Map showing the range (in red) of C. l. filchneri in China | |
| Synonyms | |
The Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus filchneri) is a subspecies of the gray wolf that is native to China in the regions of Gansu, Qinghai, and Xichang (Tibet). It is found in northern India in the Ladakh region of eastern Kashmir, and the Lahaul and Spiti region in the northeastern part of Himachal Pradesh. It is also found in Nepal in the Upper Dolpa and Upper Mustang regions. Its taxonomic classification is sometimes referred to by its previous classification of Canis lupus laniger, and sometimes incorrectly as Canis lupus chanco (the Mongolian wolf).
The wolves of Tibet were first described by British zoologist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1847 as Canis lupus laniger.
In 1907, the German zoologist Paul Matschie described a type specimen of a wolf that lived in the Gansu and Qinghai regions of China, which he named Canis filchneri Matschie (1907).Wilhelm Filchner was a German explorer who led an expedition from China to Tibet in 1903-1905 and the wolf was named by Matschie in his honor. In the third edition of Mammal Species of the World published in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft listed under the wolf Canis lupus the taxonomic synonyms for the subspecies Canis lupus filchneri, under which he included filchneri Matschie (1907) and laniger Hodgson (1847).
There remains taxonomic confusion over the Tibetan wolf. In 1941, Reginald Pocock had referred to the Tibetan wolf as Canis lupus laniger and classified it as a synonym under C. l. chanco. There are some researchers who still refer to Pocock's classification of the Tibetan wolf as C. l. chanco, which has caused taxonomic confusion. The NCBI/Genbank lists Canis lupus laniger as the Tibetan wolf, and separately Canis lupus chanco as the Mongolian wolf. Additionally, there are recent academic works that still refer to the Tibetan wolf as C. l. laniger.
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