No good estimates exist as to how many wolves might have lived in the Middle East prior to the early 1900's. However, researchers are certain that their numbers have decreased dramatically over the last century. Due to the fact that the range of Canis lupus pallipes covers several countries, it has been difficult to determine the number of wild wolves still alive. India is home to approximately 400 wolves, Israel 200-300, and even fewer in Iran and Turkey. Small populations of Iranian wolves might still exist across the Indian subcontinent.
Iranian wolves inhabit a variety of terrain, from arid desert landscapes to richer scrub forests.
As a result, there are many physical and behavioral differences among individual populations of Iranian wolves. Wolves living in drier, harsher climates show adaptations to their environment such as their small body size, hunting individually or in pairs, and the habit of eating rotting fruits to quench their thirst. Iranian wolf populations living in less harsh climates have larger prey available to hunt and as a result are slightly larger, and hunt in bigger packs. While hunting and trapping by humans have played a part in the decline of this subspecies of wolf, the primary factors include drastic loss of habitat, decline in prey populations, and increase in human populations within the wolf's historic ranges. Today, surviving Iranian wolves have retreated to less than desirable lands to escape encroaching human populations.