Meet The Rare Sea Wolves Who Live Off The Ocean And Can Swim For Hours

If you’ve never have heard of sea wolves, you’re not alone. A population of sea wolves live along the Pacific coast of British Columbia where Ian McAllister, award winning photographer and Executive Director of pacificwild.org, spent time photographing these rare animals.

“We know from exhaustive DNA studies that these wolves are genetically distinct from their continental kin,” says McAllister. “They are behaviourally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals. They are also morphologically distinct — they are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts.” McAllister has been studying these animals for almost two decades.

McAllister got up close and personal to capture these amazing pictures.  Swimming towards him, “the curious canines approached him so closely that he could hear them grunting into his snorkel. He took several frames, then pushed back into deeper water without daring to look up,” writes the bioGraphic.

The sea wolves’ hunt in the ocean from where  90 percent of their food comes of which salmon makes up about  a fourth of their diet. Apart from their unique diet they are also strong swimmers. A record swim was reported to an archipelago, 7.5 miles from the nearest landmass.

(h/t: nationalgeographic)