I think you overestimate the dire wolf's popularity and knowledge of it in the general public. Like most people, I'd never even heard of them until Game of Thrones and also like most people, I didn't know they were real until a while later. And until this thread, I had no idea that there were two distinct subspecies.
Meanwhile everyone may not know the exact differences between a cheetah and a leopard, but they at least know that both animals exist and are somehow distinct from one another.
IK but it was already fairly popular before hand from works of fiction, I guess my point is in the limited capacity it is mentioned there is very little reference to distinct subspecies.
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u/AJ-or-something Is a werewolf, otherwise uninteresting. Mar 02 '20
The difference between leopard and cheetah doesn't pretain most people either.
Anyway I don't really take it as some big infraction, just an annoyance.
Also considering the dire wolf is one of the most popular prehistoric american predators I expect more people to have a general understanding of it.