The Manitoba Wolf also known as the Grey-white Wolf, is a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the gray wolf

Gray Wolf

The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...

, Canis lupus, that used to roam in Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, and Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

. They are believed by many to simply be Hudson Bay Wolf

Hudson Bay Wolf

The Hudson Bay Wolf , also known as the Hudson Wolf, is a subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus, named in 1941 by senior biologist Edward A. Goldman. They are sometimes called Tundra wolves, though they are an entirely different subspecies of the gray wolf...

.

History

In the early 19th century, a naturalist named John Richardson

John Richardson (naturalist)

Sir John Richardson was a Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer.Richardson was born at Dumfries. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and became a surgeon in the navy in 1807. He traveled with John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage on the Coppermine Expedition of...

 first cataloged the Manitoba Wolf and gave it its taxonomic name. The species itself was highly prized for its fur and was hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 20th century. However, specimens were kept and bred in captivity and re-introduced in 1995 in the area around Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

.This has led to a public outcry in the area and in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, as the species is far larger than the timber wolf

Timber Wolf

Timber Wolf, Timberwolf, Timber Wolves or Timberwolves might refer to:-Animals:* Any subspecies of Canis lupus, the Gray wolf, which inhabits forested areas...

that is natural to the area and over-predation is a high concern.