Dire Wolf
Dire Wolf
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| ダイアウルフ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| Romaji | Daia Urufu
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| Debut | Kemono Friends (2015 Game) | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Aenocyon dirus
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| Distribution | North America, South America
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| Diet | Carnivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | ?
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| Read More | Dire wolf
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| Conservation | 
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| Dire Wolf | KF3 | Nexon Game | Stage Play | KemoV | Gallery |
Dire Wolf is a type of mammalian Friend that first appeared in the original Kemono Friends mobile game. She has since appeared in various other Kemono Friends media, including as a member of KemoV, the Kemono Friends virtual YouTuber group.
Appearance
Dire Wolf has sandy brown eyes with long messy hair that starts being Persian blue at the top, fades into a lighter color and ends in white, with a small black spot on the middlemost bang. Her hair is stylized in the form of twin-tails, held together by a pair of black ribbons on each side of her head, and she wears makeup comprised of blue lipstick and blue eye shadows. As other Friends, she has a pair of animal ears that befit her species and a large wolf tail that starts being Persian blue and fades into a darker color towards the end.
She wears a white shirt, a Persian blue v-neck sweater and a double-breasted black jacket with puffed sleeves. Her outfit is complemented by an azure blue tie with a tartan pattern, matching with the pockets and cuffs of her jacket and her short circular skirt, white gloves and a black and blue armband. She has a little badge attached to the left side of her jacket with the symbol of Japari Park on it. She wears a garter belt and Persian blue thigh highs that fade to white towards the feet, and matching white Mary Jane shoes with white fur socks.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
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| 2015 | Nexon Game | ↪ Minor character, playable character |
| 2018 | Kemono Friends Picross | Appears on a puzzle |
| 2019 | Kemono Friends 3 | ↪ Minor character, playable character |
In Real Life
The dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) is an extinct canine species which, despite its name, is not believed to have been closely related to the wolf-like canines of the genus Canis; while the dire wolf was once considered to belong to this group, DNA sequencing performed in 2021 suggested that the dire wolves diverged from the most recent common ancestor shared between Aenocyon and Canis approximately 5.7 million years ago, and found no evidence to support the occurrence of hybridization between dire wolves and grey wolves—a behavior which might be expected if the two species, the ranges of which did cross over, were more closely related. Citation of morphological similarities, especially in areas such as the highly-similar dentition of the species, forms the basis for the counterargument that the dire wolves should be placed within Canis; while the generally-accepted placement of the species is within Aenocyon, research is ongoing.
Dire wolves inhabited a wide range of biomes across North America, South America, and Eastern Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs (125,000–9,500 years ago); dire wolf remains have been found in plains, grasslands, forested mountains, savannas, and potentially steppes, and fossils have been discovered suggesting habitation at elevations as high as 2,255m (7,400 ft) above sea level. Two subspecies of Aenocyon dirus have been recognized so far: Aenocyon dirus guildayi, which weighed 60 kg (132 lb) on average, and the larger Aenocyon dirus dirus, which averaged 68 kg (150 lb). These sizes made the average dire wolf considerably heavier than the average modern grey wolf (~70lb), though still smaller than the largest-known grey wolf specimens (~175 lb). The dire wolf also possessed similar skulls and dentition to that of grey wolves, but the dire wolf sported larger teeth capable of a higher bite force and more effective shearing of flesh; these characteristics are thought to be adaptations suited to hunting and consuming Late Pleistocene megaherbivores such as western horses, ground sloths, mastodons and ancient bison.
The dire wolf went extinct during the Quaternary extinction event around 9,500 years ago, perishing alongside its aforementioned megafauna prey. The reason behind the extinction of the dire wolf is not known with perfect accuracy; while it is believed that it disappeared because its main prey species were wiped out, the reasons as to why those species vanished are uncertain. The two prevailing theories behind the mass extinction of ancient megaherbivores, both as exclusive causes and in tandem with one another, are natural climate change causing die-offs of their necessary habitats and plant species, and the rise of human predation causing numbers to drop too low for populations to successfully thrive.