[3] It is recognized as a subspecies of Canis lupus in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World (2005).

[4] It was formally discovered, classified, and named after Peter Bernard, sailing master of the gas schooner Mary Sachs of the Canadian Arctic Expedition and collected four other specimens of Canis Lupus Bernardi, and Joseph F. Bernard, his nephew, who made voyages into the Arctic as master of the gas schooner Teddy Bear, after an adult male skin and skull was collected by them and brought to the National Museum of Canada.

The wolf was described as "white with black-tipped hair along the ridge of the back".

[7] A survey was conducted in March 1993 by the Department of Renewable Resources that was to catalog the wolf and caribou populations of the area.

The Victoria Island population is believed to have become extinct between 1918 and 1952,[8] with one source proposing around 1920.