[1] In Sicilian, the male is referred to as lupu, the female lupa and a pup as lupacchiu or lupacchiolu, while the terms lupazzu and lupiceddu are respectively a pejorative and a diminutive.

[1] According to Francesco Minà Palumbo, the Sicilian wolf typically lived alone or in pairs in mountainous valley areas.

Its range encompassed all of Sicily, particularly Palermo, the woods surrounding Mount Etna, the Peloritani, the Nebrodi, the Madonie, the Monti Sicani and Ficuzza.

[4] Furthermore, Palumbo wrote of some specimens sporting whitish or almost black coats, with floppy ears, woolly fur and upturned tails, traits which he hypothesised were the result of wolf-dog hybridisation.

[1] In 2018, an examination of the holotype – a mounted specimen and its skull stored at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze – and three others confirmed the morphological distinctiveness of the Sicilian wolf, and an examination of the mtDNA extracted from the teeth of several skulls showed that the subspecies possessed a unique haplotype, distinct from that of the Italian wolf.

This timing is compatible with the existence of the latest land bridge between Sicily and southwestern tip of Italy, which flooded at the end of the Late Pleistocene to form the Messina Strait.