The species Canidae includes the grey wolf and its subspecies, however there is debate between many scientists over the classification of some subspecies of wolf such as the coyote, the red wolf, the Indian wolf and the dingo. It has been suggested that these sub species should not be classified as “canis lupus” but rather canis lupus familiaris, or in laymans terms “wolf, but not quite!”



There have also been calls from many animal studies to reclassify the domestic dog as “canis lupus familiaris” as although they are known as the wolfs most distant relative, they do share 98% of the wolfs DNA and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that mans best friend may be more wolf than dog!



Many breeds of dog share behavioural traits and characteristics with the wolf such as the Siberian husky who prefer to howl rather than bark and are very much a “pack” dog and there has been many reports of cross breeding between wolf and dog, the first recorded incident was in the UK between an alleged male wolf and a pomeranien bitch back in 1766!



Canidae such as the fox are often referred to as being part of the canid genus but are actually known as the genus vulpine (or vulpes). Although they share many characteristics with canids and did evolve from the same prehistoric species miacoids (which split into caniforms and feliforms) the caniforms went on to split again into the wolfs prehistoric ancestor the dire wolf and it is thought that the species vulpes formed from this split.