Personally, I think most of the hype about wolves is based just on their appearance. That's what gets alot of people hooked, then they add the other stuff. I didn't get hooked.
Why I'm a talking about this you may ask? Simple, take a look at a group of wolf fan art and you'll notice 1 common detail......99.9% of the art ONLY uses the Stocky, long haired, Moose Guzzling, North American Timber Wolves or Siberian Wolves as their basis.
What happen to all the other sub-species of wolves? Wolves aren't my favorite animal, not by a long shot. But my personal favorite sub-species would have to be either the Dingo, or Indian Wolf. Now I can sorta understand the Dingo, because technically its a wild dog; but why hasn't the Indian Wolf gotten any spot light? Just because its got short hair, big ears, and is not nearly as bulky as the Timber wolf, is it any less a wolf?
Some facts about the Indian Wolf that I think are more interesting then anything the Timber Wolves got.
1. Genetic research has shown that wolves in India are the oldest in the world, and likely are the ancestors of
ALL other wolf subspecies. In fact, the skeletons of prehistoric wolves in Europe are almost identical to those of modern Indian wolves.
2. They are the true ancestors of our dogs. Their skulls are almost identical to those of primitive dog breeds such as dingoes, and their vocalizations consist largely of short, sharp barks. They rarely howl. And the first domestic dogs did stem from Central Asia, right in the range of Indian Wolves. So yah, that moose guzzling poser had nothing to do with your beloved dog's ancestry....sorry to disappoint you.
3. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. And Indian Wolves ARE the wolves in its stories. It really annoys me when I see Jungle Book fan art that makes it look like the wolves would be more at home in the Arctic then the jungles of India.
Here's a picture of a pair of Indian Wolves, and a Pair of Timber wolves for you all to compare
Indian Wolves http://hal_macgregor.tripod.com/kennel/indianwolf1.jpg
Timber Wolves
http://thumb11.shutterstock.com.edgesui ... 625338.jpg
And don't get me started with all the other traits wolves have that I see people love on them for...-_-