Iberian wolf

The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus, or Canis lupus lupus, Spanish and Portuguese : Lobo ibérico), is a subspecies of grey wolf. It inhabits the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes northwestern Spain and northern Portugal. It is home to 2,200-2,700 wolves which have been isolated from mixing with other wolf populations for over a century. They form the largest wolf population in Western Europe. Due to population controls and damage to livestock, Iberian wolves were, as of September 2021, the only Western European subspecies of wolf whose hunting remained legal, yet only in Spain. Nonetheless, very few hunting permits were given every year, strictly north of the Douro river. Along with the difficulty of their hunt by virtue of their vigilant nature and the rarity of their sightings, they were strongly desired by many European hunters as a big-game trophy. The Iberian wolf Canis lupus signatus Cabrera 1907 is classified as Canis lupus lupus by Mammal Species of the World. Some authors claim that the south-eastern Spanish wolf, last sighted in Murcia in the 1930s, was a different subspecies called Canis lupus deitanus. It was even smaller and more reddish in color, without dark spots. Both subspecies were nominated by the Spanish-born zoologist Ángel Cabrera in 1907. The Iberian wolf's skull morphometrics, mtDNA, and microsatellites differ from other European wolves. In 2016, a study of mitochondrial DNA sequences of both modern and ancient wolves indicated that in Europe, the two most genetically distinct haplotypes form the Italian wolf, and separately, the Iberian wolf. The National Center for Biotechnology Information/Genbank lists the Iberian wolf under Canis lupus signatus. In 2020, a genomic study of Eurasian wolves found that the populations of the Dinaric Alps-Balkan Mountains region, the Iberian peninsula, and Italy diverged from each other 10,500 years ago followed by negligible gene flow between them. Their long-term isolation may explain the morphological and genetic differences between them.