Black wolves got the colour from dogsNot an ancient wolf trait at all. The black coat comes from a single gene variant that entered North American wolf populations by interbreeding with domestic dogs thousands of years ago.Which is why black wolves are common in the forests of North America and effectively absent in Europe. A European wolf is grey; a Canadian one may well not be.There is a further oddity: the variant is far more frequent in forested country than on open tundra, and researchers suspect it may be linked to disease resistance rather than camouflage.So the most wolf-looking colour of wolf is the one that came from dogs.A practical colourThe print is one wolf, head and shoulders, muzzle raised in a howl beneath a crescent moon in a pale clouded sky. The animal reads as a near-black shape against the lightest part of the panel.Black is the sensible choice for a bag that gets used daily. It hides scuffing, dust and the marks that a pale bag collects within a month, and it does not show the wear at the corners where a backpack always goes first.The trade is that a black bag is hard to spot in a pile of black bags. A small tag or a coloured clip on the handle solves that.The bag29 x 16 x 42 cm, Oxford fabric and black nylon, foam-lined back panel, air cushion shoulder straps.Our article on the black wolf covers the animal. See the wolf backpack range.Free worldwide shipping, 7 to 12 business days. 30 day returns. See our shipping policy for details.