Wolf coat with green eyes

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Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by --Thunderwolf-- » Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:13 am

First off, I love wolfquest 2.7 and all the new coat options. I do have a question though. I noticed that one of the coats has bright green eyes. Is this realistic? I know the new coats are based off of real wolf packs, but I've also heard that wolves don't have green or blue eyes (but wolfdogs can). Thanks for any help with answering this question. :)

Thanks for the response. It seems like green eyes are extremely rare but not unheard of.
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Awesome! looks like this forum got some extra questions and answers. :acorn:
Last edited by --Thunderwolf-- on Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:13 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by valkea » Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:16 am

Moved to Wolf Q&A.
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by Koa » Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:10 am

Answers from Blightwolf's FAQ topic and threads in this forum:
http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34625
What are the eye colors of a wolf?

Wolves are born with limpid blue eyes. The color reduces/fades and becomes lighter as the wolves mature and eventually the color of the eyes changes into ambers r, yellow, ocher, gold, or brown. Wolves can also have bluish or greenish tints in their eyes, but very rarely an adult wolf has blue or green eyes. Fully-grown wolves with blue or green eyes are not unheard of, but the condition of the eyes is caused by a rare genetic defect, or "glitch", and therefore blue or green-eyed wolves are extremely uncommon.

Pure-blooded wild wolves have not been documented being bi-eyed (heterochromic; having two differently colored eyes). Heterochromia is a common trait in Northern dog breeds and low and midrange wolfdogs, but not in wolves or high-content wolfdogs.
http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.p ... s#p1436702
ara-tun wrote: Determination of eye color is actually fairly complex. Eye color is polygenic; that is, it takes multiple genes to determine the color and shade of the iris (this is true for mammals, although a different mechanism is in place for birds, and likely reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects). Among mammals, brown and other dark colors are the most common eye color, however blue, gray, green and red also occur.

While the majority of wolves do indeed have differing shades of amber and brown eyes, this is by no means the only colors represented in pure wild wolf populations. Less common in wolves is the blue mutation, however this is not always due to breeding with dogs. Blue eye color is rare in wolves, but it does occur. Like most blue eyes in mammals, it occurred first as a mutation that promoted a certain pigment over another - in this case, shades of blue over shades of gold or brown - which was then passed down in their offspring. Some dog breeds likely have inherited their blue eyes from wolves, although most probably developed the mutation on their own. Some wolf populations that live in close proximity to humans and their dogs may certainly gain a higher proportion of blue-eyed individuals, but not all blue-eyed wolves have dog ancestry.

Even more rare than blue eyes is green. Green-eyed wolves do not all share dog ancestry. Indeed, very few dogs exhibit green eyes (Dachshunds and Golden Retrievers occasionally have green eyes), and likewise very few wolves show green eyes. Again, this is another mutation. Depending on the shade of green, the mutation can occur on what would normally be a brown eye - creating the green-and-brown hazel eye -, or on a gold eye - creating a paler, green-and-gold hazel eye.

Likely the rarest eye color among wolves is red. The red eye color is due to a complete lack of pigmentation in the eye, resulting in the underlying red of the capillaries to show through. Red eye color is generally associated with albinism, which can - but does not always - lead to other degenerative conditions such as blindness or skin cancer.

It is also possible for wolves (and other mammals) to exhibit heterochromia - two different eye colors. This can occur either as a rare eye mutation, through disease, or through trauma. Even more rarely, this can occur due to the organism being a chimera - that is, having two separate sets of DNA, likely from a consumed twin. This is extremely rare outside of a lab setting, and is theoretically possible in every organism.

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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by duskypack » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:00 am

I'm curious, if green eyes are extremely uncommon than why are they in the game where it becomes really common?
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by Koa » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:39 pm

duskypack wrote:I'm curious, if green eyes are extremely uncommon than why are they in the game where it becomes really common?
To be completely honest, I don't know. I've asked that question to myself. Dave might have more insight.

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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by paperpaws » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:07 pm

Koa wrote:
duskypack wrote:I'm curious, if green eyes are extremely uncommon than why are they in the game where it becomes really common?
To be completely honest, I don't know. I've asked that question to myself. Dave might have more insight.
This is merely speculation, but it may have something to do with the fact that the coats are based on real Yellowstone wolf packs. Perhaps the coats with the differing eye colours are based on wolves that look the same? Otherwise, it's probably to satisfy the aesthetic demand for different eye colours without going too crazy with the possibilities. Again, these are just my thoughts.

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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by Noctis_ » Sat Sep 23, 2017 4:19 pm

Anduril wrote:Otherwise, it's probably to satisfy the aesthetic demand for different eye colours without going too crazy with the possibilities.
I believe this is the most likely answer. The most commonly desired eye colors for wolf characters were always blue and green. However, I've noticed fewer and fewer players using wolves with blue/green eyes in-game, especially compared to the WolfQuest 2.5 population. I think the addition of the new customization options has broadened players' views of 'nice-looking' colors. Nowadays, I see more gold/brown-eyed wolves than anything else.
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by SheWolf17 » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:17 pm

:arrow: I've been researching wolves with blue and green eyes, and found some information:
Wolves can have grey, green, brown, yellow, or orange eyes - all these colours can vary in the tone of lightness/darkness, though the green is a palish light green.
Unlike in several dog breeds like Huskies, heterochromia (different coloured eyes) is not a natural wolf trait. I’ve never seen a wolf with two different coloured eyes, but of course theoretically it is possible due to genetic defects.
The same goes for blue eyes. Wolves can only have appearing blue eyes when they have a genetic defect (such as cataracts, which is really rare). In a natural way, wolf eyes never come in blue.
Also, I just thought of the fact that this might also be interesting: at Wolf Park, there’s this wolf called Reudi:
Image
And at Wolf Conservation Center there was this wolf that recently passed away called Lukas:
Image

Both of them have appearing blue eyes, while in fact they both have an extreme pale light gray eye colour. Their eyes appear blue from certain angles or in certain lights or surroundings. Their eyes were an extremely light gray, which causes them to be reflective of their environment. I don’t recall exactly, but I know Reudi had several genetic defects - one of them resulting in him having very short legs. No doubt these genetic defects caused his odd eye colour. Here’s some more information on Reudi and his eyes.
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by Koa » Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:24 pm

@ Nymeria10 - Please avoid repeating answers. Be sure to link to your source you used in the future, although I'd suggest avoiding tumblr posts when possible.

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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by loboLoco » Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:35 pm

I can't recall our source for those eye colors last summer, but sounds like we strayed too far with the green eyes. Will remove them from the set.
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Re: Wolf coat with green eyes

Post by Koa » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:03 pm

Thanks for clarifying, Dave. I will lock this topic to prevent any further speculation or additional repeated answers.
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