Scientific Names vs. Common Names for Wolves

Photo taken at Howling Woods Farm, Jackson NJ

The animal pictured is a high content wolfdog, but if it were a wild wolf would Eastern Timber Wolf be the correct term?

Scientists are still debating which wolves are actually different species, subspecies, or hybrids, like the coywolf in the North American East.

 

However, it has been determined there are three recognized species of wolves around the world, the grey wolf, the red wolf and recently, the animal known as the Ethiopian Jackal/Fox was found to be a species of wolf, now called, the Ethiopian wolf.

There are also a lot of names people use when talking about wolves, like Timber, Arctic, and Tundra that are not always clearly understood.

 

What’s in a name?

The Scientific Naming of Wolves

Scientific names consist of two italicized words in Latin. 

The genus is the first part of the name, and the second part of the name is the species. Only the first letter of the genus is capitalized. For example, (Canis lupus) is the scientific name for the Grey Wolf.

Subspecies of living things will contain the species, genus... and descriptive words. For example: The Australian Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) and the domesticated dog (Canis lupus familiaris) are two of many grey wolf subspecies around the world.

The scientific naming system is universal and anyone, of any language can use the word and it will be understood without question.  Scientific names provide information about one species’ relationship to another.

Common Names for Wolves

 

Common names for wolves vary by culture and region. They are not usually specific like scientific names. For example, a gray wolf living in an eastern forest could be called an “eastern timber” wolf. Likewise, a gray wolf living on the tundra might be commonly called a “tundra” wolf.

Scientists also sometimes use regions in their descriptions in Latin ... the artic wolf (Canis lupus arctos).

The pictured animal is standing on logs in the Eastern United States, so I guess  using the common name system it can be called and Eastern Timer Wolfdog.