LINK: African wolf found in Morocco for the first time

For some years I have been maintaining that one of the most interesting areas of cryptozoology for the nest few years is going to be the study of mystery dogs around the world. My own researches into the Texas blue dogs, have been publised quite widely and yes there is a book in preperation, which I will finish when I have enough time and can previal upon an amanuensis (probably the ever lovely Jess Heard) to let me dictate the rest of the bloody thing to her.

In recent years there have been some amazing development taxonomy of African Canids. Last year the Eygptian jackal turned out not to be a jackal at all but a sub-species of the grey wolf. Now so call jackals in Senegal and Moroccan have also turned out to be wolves. The implication for other populations, for example the jackals of hungary which the locals call 'reed wolves'. Watch this space.

Camera trap photos from the Middle Atlas reveal a wolf

September 2012. A group of Spanish-Moroccan researchers has announced the discovery of the African Wolf (Canis lupus lupaster) in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The team leader, Vicente Urios, from the University of Alicante says it is "a fabulous find". The wolves were photographed by camera trap in 2011.

The researchers discovered from the Berbers that inhabit that they knew of two types of "jackals", one large and one small. Vicente Urios's team guessed that the largest would actually be a wolf. "They even have a word for wolf, but they always thought the animals were jackals" says Urios.

The photographs show an animal with "obvious wolf characteristics, such as a large body, slender, with a powerful neck, tall individuals with darker mantle and short tail." The photo is taken in the Atlas at about 1,800 metres.

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