Most of the posts on this topic are allready several years old, so I just HOPE you have done your homework about wild wolves within these years, and learned that there are NO adult pure wolves with blue eyes; it is a dog trait and usually seen in wolfdogs that are mixed with Huskies.
I truly hope none of you base your knowledge of wolves on what you see in calenders or at some random internet pages.
In this crazy world there are zoos that have wolfdogs as "wolves", and I have books about wolves, that show pictures of Northern breeds & wolfdogs. And even a book about dog breeds, that shows Alaskan Malamute with blue eyes (a heavy built show type Husky in the pic
).
There are lots of false information out there, but people who have really done their homework and research about wolves & canines overall, also know WHERE to look for the CORRECT information.
I must say I find it quite worrying that there are breeders of wolfdogs (FCI recognized and non-recognized) who obviously lack even basic knowledge of wolves.
The "
forest brown" coloring of the SWD has always been a question mark to me; -were it came from? I am still wondering... and searching the answer to this.
Genetically it must be similar to the "liver" color, which is caused by a gene that makes the
eumelanin pigment cells, that normally produce black pigment, to produce "reddish" pigment instead. Atleast concluding the lighter pigmentation also on nose & lips etc (not only hair), which would not be the case if the reddish color would be
phaeomelanin (it affects only on hair color, not skin).
http://abnormality.purpleflowers.net...cs/pigment.htm
Huskies have similar color with white markings like the SWD.
http://www.huskycolors.com/red.html
But if SWD has never been mixed with Huskies, and originates only from cross breeding of GSD & wolf, then the gene must have come from the GSD (there are liver colored GDS's, but they are quite rare and considered as fault in the FCI breed standard) and is combined with the gene for white markings;
in other words: the parts of the coat (& each sigle hair) that would "normally" be black, are liver colored, but the white markigns are the same.
I'd suppose the liver color in GSD is that rare, that the lines & individuals carrying the gene are pretty well known?
I might be wrong though, I'm no expert on the GSD lines. But if I'm right, then I'd assume it would be possible to track the individual in SWD history that introduced the liver gene into the breed. Otherwise I would not exclude the possibility that there have been cross breeding with some other breed(s) too, carrying the liver color gene.
I look forward to some genetic studies about wolf & wolfdog breeds colors.
