Meet the Rare Sea Wolves With Two Paws in the Ocean and Two Paws on Land

They move like ghosts along the shorelines of Canada’s Vancouver Island, so elusive that people rarely see them in the mossy forests.

British filmmaker Bertie Gregory was one of the lucky ones: He saw coastal wolves—also known as sea wolves—in 2011.

“There is something about being in the presence of a coastal wolf—they just have this magic and aura around them,” he says.

“Coastal wolves are such a unique predator, and they are hunting in this absolutely epic landscape,” says Gregory. Roughly the size of Maryland, the island and its remote western fringes are still a wild frontier in the Pacific Northwest.

Unlike their inland cousins, coastal island wolves are entirely dedicated to the sea. Their genes prove it; collectively, coastal island wolves have distinct DNA that sets them apart from interior wolves

People usually associate wolf meals with elk or deer, but these guys are practically pescatarians, with salmon accounting for nearly a quarter of their diet.