Wolves are typically thought of as land animals that hunt in groups and are vicious predators that can hunt in a wide array of terrains. Whether it be mountains, the flatlands or the snow, packs of wolves have been spotted hunting and dominating their preys.
However, there is a type of wolf out there that has a distinctly different appetite. It mainly feasts on seafood and does most of its traveling and hunting by sea.
These animals are aptly named sea wolves.
90 percent of their diet comes from marine life. The other 10 percent is made up of salmon.
Running along the Pacific Coast of British Columbia in Canada, there lies a pack of sea wolves. These predators are behaviorally, socially and genetically different from their kin on land.
Ian McAllister
According to Ian McAllister, a photographer who has been studying these animals for two decades: ‘DNA studies [show] that these wolves are genetically distinct from their continental kin.’
Ian McAllisterHe continued on by saying: ‘They are behaviorally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals. They are also morphologically distinct — they are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts.’
These wolves typically prey on clams, salmon, and mussels but biologists and scientists have found that other species of wolves that live close to the coast have just as much meat as they do seafood.
Those same experts say the wolves tend to stay away from salmon so as not to directly compete with big bears. But this leads to the wolves’ vulnerability to oil spills since they eat animals from the ocean.
In an interview, he stated that the wolves got so close to him that he could hear them grunting into his snorkel.
He said that he snapped a couple of pictures before diving back down into deeper waters and swimming back to safety.
These wolves are also extraordinary swimmers and they have been known to swim as far as seven and a half miles away from the nearest landmass.
