146 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



Investigations are now underway to determine whether 

 or not the wolf found in Louisiana may be a separate spe- 

 cies or subspecies of the ordinary wolf of North Ameirca, 

 and the Federal biologists are planning a revision of this 

 important genus and it may be found by them that the 

 wolf found in Louisiana may prove to be a separate form. 

 The wolf described as Canis floridanus seems to run 

 through Louisiana into Arkansas. 



The young are born early in the year, the mother seek- 

 ing a den while the male stands guard. The pups vary 

 from three to a dozen in number, but six to a litter is the 

 average. The pups arrive in January, sometimes during 

 the last of February and are "blind", the eyes not opening 

 until they are nine days old. The old wolves prove to be 

 devoted parents, the dog assisting the mother in securing 

 food for the young and in rearing them. 



In Louisiana there is very frequently found a wholly 

 black wolf, pupped in a litter with ordinary gray brothers 

 and sisters, which prove this phase to be merely a color 

 variation and does not make the animal a separate species. 

 In the Audubon Park Zoo, New Orleans, a male black wolf 

 with a gray bitch from the same litter taken in Evangeline 

 parish, and kept in captivity for a number of years, bred 

 three times, and in each litter there were black pups as well 

 as gray. The first litter was composed of five, three of the 

 young being black, the other two taking the pelage of the 

 mother. The second and third litters consisted of four 

 young each, there being two black and two gray pups in 

 each litter. The coloration did not follow the sex, as in 

 the first litter, the blacks being bitches and the grays were 

 dogs. In April, 1928, this same gyp pupped a litter of 

 seven, but the dog made a meal off the young before he 

 could be removed and the coloration of the pups could not be 

 ascertained. 



The black Louisiana wolf is not wholly black, as it 

 usually has a light-gray breast patch that appears pure 

 white in contrast with the rest of the pelage. 



It has been in recent years only that the wolf skin has 

 been taken up by the fur trade; the pelts bringing the 



