Wolves are known as one of the top predators that live in the forest areas of Europe and Northern America. And even though they’re exclusively carnivorous mammals and they’re feeding with small animals they hunt, apparently there’s a population of sea wolves that eat seafood. A reminder that wildlife is constantly changing and species could easily adapt to any environment.
These rare wolves live along the Pacific coast British Columbia and apparently they posses o lot of particularities from their cousins.
“We know from exhaustive DNA studies that these wolves are genetically distinct from their continental kin,” says Ian McAllister – an award-winning photographer who’s been studying these majestic creatures for over 20 years. “They are behaviourally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals. They are also morphologically distinct — they are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts.”
One big difference between these elusive wolves and their continental cousins is they fed exclusively with seafood, mostly salmon. Therefore, they could easily be called a pescatarian wolf species.
Another particularity of these sea wolves is their ability to swim for hours in searching for food. “Our farthest record [of their swimming abilities] is to an archipelago 7.5 miles from the nearest landmass,” Chris Darimont, science director at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation told National Geographic.
Given their unfamiliar environment, these wolves “are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts,” Darimont also said. “They are behaviourally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals.”
h/t: nationalgeographic | boredpanda
