Wolves as pets and working animals
Some wildlife centers housing captive wolves prohibit handlers from entering wolf enclosures if they happen to have a cold or other vulnerability which the wolves can detect. Captive wolves are generally shy and avoid eye contact with humans other than their owner, as well as not listening to any commands made by any other humans. They usually vacate rooms or hide when a new person enters the establishment. Even seemingly friendly wolves need to be treated with caution, as captive wolves tend to view and treat people as other wolves, and will thus bite or dominate people in the same situation in which they would other wolves. Ordinary pet food is inadequate, as an adult wolf needs 1–2.5 kg (2–5 lbs) of meat daily along with bones, skin and fur to meet its nutritional requirements. Wolves may defend their food against people, and react violently to people trying to remove it. The exercise needs of a wolf exceed the average dog's demand. Because of this, captive wolves typically do not cope well in urban areas. Due to their talent at observational learning, adult captive wolves can quickly work out how to escape confinement, and require constant reinforcement by caretakers or owners, which makes raising wolves difficult for people who raise their pets in an even, rather than subordinate, environment.
Evolution of the wolf
The study indicated that there has been extensive genetic admixture between domestic dogs and wolves, with up to 25% of the genome of Old World wolves showing signs of dog ancestry, possibly as the result of gene flow from dogs into wolves that were ancestral to all modern wolves. There was evidence of significant gene flow between the European wolves plus the Israeli wolf with the basenji and boxer, which suggests admixture between the lineages ancestral to these breeds and wolf populations. For the lowland Asian wolves: the Central Russian and East Russian wolves and all of the lowland Chinese wolves had significant gene flow with the Chinese indigenous dogs, the Tibetan Mastiff and the dingo. For the highland Asian wolves: The Tibetan wolves did not show significant admixture with dogs; however, the Qinghai wolves had gene flow with the dingo and one of them had gene flow with the Chinese dogs. The New World wolves did not show any gene flow with the boxer, dingo or Chinese indigenous dogs but there was indication of gene flow between the Mexican wolf and the African basenji. All species within the genus "Canis", the wolf-like canids, are phylogenetically closely related with 78 chromosomes and can potentially interbreed. There was indication of gene flow into the golden jackal from the population ancestral to all wolves and dogs (11.3%–13.6%) and much lower rates (up to 2.8%) from extant wolf populations.