They walk like ghosts on the shores of Vancouver Island in Canada - so subtle that people rarely see how they sneak through mossy forests.
British director Bertie Gregory is one of shtastlivtsite: he observed coastal wolves - also known as sea wolves in 2011
"There is something in the presence of coastal wolf - they just have that magic and aura around him" - he says.
This experience inspired him to come back and record animals for the first episode of National Geographic in YouTube, wild_life with bertie gregory, which begins on August third.
"Coastal wolves are unique predator and hunted in this fantastic landscape" - says Gregory. The island and its remote western suburbs are then preserved wild areas of the Pacific Northwest.
Chris Daramont, scientific director of the foundation Reynkoust Konserveyshan, studied the unusual lifestyle of predators for about two decades. He shares some interesting facts about the elusive population of coastal wolves.
There are two types of coastal wolves
There continental coastal wolves island and coastal wolves, the latter being the one that is the focus of Gregory. "The continental coastal wolves are also" coastal "even though they eat less seafood than those of the island" - says Daramont.
Their lives are tied to the ocean
Life coastal wolves is fully connected to the ocean, unlike their terrestrial cousins. Their genes also show. Both coastal wolves have different DNA from wolves inland, a study from 2014 published in BMC Ecology.
Up to 90 percent of their diet was seafood
Most wolves eat wild game - deer, but coastal almost entirely pestsetariantsi - like salmon up about a quarter of their menu. Besides this they eat crustaceans, shellfish, eggs, herring, river otters and whales died.
They are excellent swimmers
Coastal wolves live with two feet in the ocean and two feet on land, says Daramont. When hunting, they swim miles between islands to feast on seals and carcasses of animals that are on the rocks. "The longest recorded their record is 12 km from the mainland close to the archipelago."
Nearby are sized to German shepherd
They are smaller than gray wolves in other parts of the country, which results from their diets. "The wolves inside were about 20 percent larger" - says Daramont. Moreover, the color of coastal usually brown or reddish.
Vancouver Island is not only their home
There's more populations that inhabit southeastern Alaska, although their number has decreased over time. "Once they roamed along the coast all the way to California in the then moderate rain forest. Now they go down just north of Vancouver. "- scientists say.
"This should remind us to take good care of them."
Source: National Geographic, https://www.gettyimages.com/