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Indian Wolf
A lean, heat-adapted wolf of India's open plains — smaller than its northern cousins, and one of the country's most threatened predators.
How to spot it
A smaller, shorter-coated wolf than the grey wolves of the north, with sandy-to-greyish fur suited to hot, open country and little underfur. It stands lighter and leaner — an animal built for warmth, not snow.
Where it lives
The scrub, grassland and semi-desert of the Indian plains — Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and the central states — often close to farms and grazing land rather than deep forest.
What it eats
A carnivore that hunts in small packs, taking antelope such as blackbuck and chinkara, hares, rodents and, near villages, livestock. Its habit of taking goats and sheep brings it into sharp conflict with herders.
Behaviour & life
Lives in smaller packs than northern wolves, denning in burrows or under rocks, and is most active around dawn and dusk. Persecution and the loss of open grassland have made it scarce.
In India
Protected under Schedule I, the Indian wolf is one of the country's most endangered large carnivores — its grassland home is often dismissed as "wasteland" and lost to farming and development, leaving very few animals behind.
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