page_title: Italian wolf
section_title: In Latin and Italian culture
hierarchical_section_title: Italian wolf / In Latin and Italian culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Lupa Capitolina: she-wolf with Romulus and Remus. Bronze, 13th century AD[1] (the twins are a 15th-century addition). Français&#160;: Lupa Capitolina: louve avec Romulus et Rémus. Bronze, œuvre du XIIIe siècle. (les jumeaux sont un ajout du XVe siècle).
context_page_description: The Italian wolf, also known as the Apennine wolf, is a proposed subspecies of grey wolf native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the Apennine Mountains and the Western Alps, though it is undergoing expansion towards the north and east. As of 2019, the Italian wolf population is estimated to consist of 600–700 individuals. It has been strictly protected in Italy since the 1970s, when the population reached a low of 70–100 individuals. The population is increasing in number, though illegal hunting and persecution still constitute a threat. Since the 1990s, the Italian wolf's range has expanded into southwestern France and Switzerland. Although not universally recognised as a distinct subspecies, it nonetheless possesses a unique mtDNA haplotype and a distinct skull morphology.
  The Italian wolf typically weighs 25–35 kg, though some large males have been weighed at 40–45 kg. It measures 110–148 cm in body length and 50–70 cm in shoulder height. The pelt is generally of a grey-fulvous colour, which reddens in summer. The belly and cheeks are more lightly coloured, and dark bands are present on the back and tail tip, and occasionally along the fore limbs.
context_section_description: The animal features prominently in pre-Roman, Roman, and later Italian cultures. In Roman mythology, the wolf played a role in the founding of Rome by suckling the twins Romulus and Remus. According to Terry Jones, "The Romans did not see [the tale of Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf] as a charming story; they meant to show that they had imbibed wolfish appetites and ferocity with their mother's milk". The wolf was also considered sacred to Mars, and to see a wolf before going into battle was considered a good omen. The origin of the myth can be traced back to a wolf cult among the neighbouring Sabines. The Sabines had two words for wolf: hirpus (used in religious contexts) and lupus, the latter of which was incorporated into Latin.
  Although the Romans did not worship wolves, killing them was likely considered taboo; unlike the Etruscans, the Romans very rarely sacrificed wolves in rituals, and  no records have been found  of wolves being used in the amphitheatres, despite being more numerous and easily accessible compared to other, more exotic animals used. The use of wolves in Roman folk medicine, while attested by Pliny the Elder, was minimal compared to other animals such as snakes or bears and, contrary to popular imagery, Roman standard bearers did not wear wolf skins, with the only units attested to have worn them being the velites, who were the poorest and youngest warriors using the wolf skins to distinguish themselves. Wolves entering cities or temples were usually only killed when the animal had no means of escape, unlike the case with wasps, oxen, and owls, which were quickly eliminated if they entered sacred areas. Negative attitudes towards wolves in Italy largely began with the invasion of the Lombards, who zoomorphically described their raids and invasions as wolf raids, bringing wolves into disrepute. The belief in werewolves was still widespread in Italy during the early 1920s, and covering their faces when resting outside at night was once traditional among rural people, as sleeping whilst facing the full moon was thought to transform the sleeper into a wolf. The wolf also featured prominently in Italian folk medicine. Baby colic was treated by tying a sack filled with a piece of wolf gut around the child's neck, while miscarriages were prevented by tying a wolf's intestine around the mother's abdomen. Rheumatism and tonsillitis were treated with wolf fat, while a tooth or tuft of fur was worn as a talisman against the evil eye.
  The Romans apparently did not consider wolves overly dangerous to people, with the only references to them attacking people being proverbial or mythological. Although Italy has no records of wolf attacks on humans after World War II and the eradication of rabies in the 1960s, historians examining church and administrative records from northern Italy's central Po Valley region (which includes a part of modern-day Switzerland) found 440 cases of wolves attacking people between the 15th and 19th centuries. The 19th-century records show that from 1801–1825,  112 attacks occurred, 77 of which resulted in death. Of these cases, only five were attributed to rabid animals.
caption: According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.11", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:03 15:41:06", "Image Artist": "Marie-Lan Nguyen", "Image Copyright": "Creative Commons Attribution", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "3220", "Image Tag 0x9216": "[1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3332", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7081", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:09:06 15:40:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:09:06 15:40:32", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "540241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "43/10", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "56/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Tungsten (incandescent light)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF SubSecTime": "41", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "41", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "41", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "60", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}