The Mexican wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, the smallest one (1.2-1.5 meters long, weighing 27-37 kilograms). Until modern times, the Mexican wolf ranged from central Mexico to the states of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona in the United States of America. The Mexican wolf came into conflict with humans as a result of human activity decreasing the number of deer and elk available for it to prey on, driving it to kill livestock. By the 1950s, the Mexican wolf was extinct in the wild. 340 or more of them exist in 49 animal facilities and zoos such as The Living Desert. Release programs and escapees have not been met with success so far.

The Mexican wolf seems to vary wildly in appearance, but these are good representatives in my opinion. They look beautiful and distinct from all other dogs, coyotes, and wolves, having chaparral dirt-colored patches of fur behind the ears and on the limbs for camoflauge, just as the brush rabbits and desert cottontails in their homerange have. Since gray wolves and all dogs are the same species, Canis lupus, interbreeding can easily dilute out the genes that make Mexican wolves unique. Wolves will mate with larger dogs and spawn wolfdogs, while coyotes (Canis latrans) will form coy-dogs with dogs. Coywolves result from matings between coyotes and wolves, although wolves are more likely to kill coyotes. Size seems to be a factor in interbreeding, as small toy dogs are useless in the wild and will be eaten by wild canines, but large dogs are sometimes candidates for mating. This is why one will sometimes see shaggy-looking coyotes that resemble large dogs in the hills of California: they are coydogs. All domestic dogs that turn feral will interbreed and result in progeny that have, on average, 30 centimeter legs and standard length jaws/faces. Feral dogs regress towards the mean "look" very quickly. Wolves and coyotes, on the other hand, will turn "dog-like" in appearance within a generation of captivity due to hormonal regulation changes.

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