Tundra wolf
subspecies of mammal
The tundra wolf (Canis lupus albus), also known as the Turukhan wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to northern Eurasia.
It was first classified in 1792 by Robert Kerr based on a description by Gerhard Friedrich Müller, who described it as living around the Yenisei, and of having a highly valued pelt. Current recognition of this subspecies' distinctiveness hinges entirely on morphometric skull measurements, with a 2022 taxonomic study finding no further supporting evidence for its validity.
Description
It is a large subspecies, though smaller than C. l. lupus, with adult males measuring 118–137 cm (46.5–54 in) in body length, and females 112–136 cm (44–53.5 in). Average weight is 40–49 kg (88–108 lb) for males and 36.6–41 kg (81–90 lb) for females. The highest weight recorded among 500 wolves caught in the Taymyr Peninsula and the Kanin Peninsula during 1951-1961 was from an old male killed on the Taymyr at the north of the Dudypta River weighing 52 kg (115 lb). The fur is very long, dense, fluffy, and soft, and is usually light grey in colour. The lower fur is lead-grey and the upper fur is reddish-grey.
Range and ecology
According to L. David Mech, the tundra wolf occurs throughout the tundra and forest-tundra regions of Eurasia, from Finland eastward to the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The public source identifies “Tundra wolf” as subspecies of mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tundra, wolf and subspecies.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q932176. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1792, 2022, 1951 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tundra wolf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.