Could Canine Genetics Aid the Wild Wolf?
Published on February 6, 2009 by K9 Magazine News Editor · 1 CommentWolves have acquired a genetic mutation for dark coat colour through mating with domestic dogs, scientists report.
Dark coats could help wolves adapt and survive in new environments, the international team argues.
Light-coloured coats are dominant in wolves living on tundra, but dark coats have become common among wolves living in forested areas of North America.
The findings come from a genetic analysis of wolf populations in Europe and North America.
“We usually think that dogs developed from wolves. The work shows an example where dogs gave something back to wolves,” co-author Greg Barsh, from Stanford University in California, told Science magazine. A trait that was created by humans may now prove to be beneficial for wolves
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This article mentions scientists and wolf experts. Yet the study I read on this phenomenon before, was done by science students (with no wolf expert listed) and mainly involved wolves from Yellowstone National Park. This study also stated that only North American wolves had black individuals, and none had ever been known in Europe or Asia; which I know is not accurate. They claimed that this was due to the dog genes being introduced to wolves in North America from the dogs of the migrating humans who crossed the Bering Land Bridge, while no such introduction happened in Europe or Asia.
One thing that made me suspicious of their results were that the black wolves of Yellowstone were claimed to have the dominant alleles for black found in most black dogs; yet previous studies by geneticists (not students) found that the black in wolves were of the recessive type, found almost exclusively in some herding dogs. The Yellowstone wolves were included inthe previous study. So which study was accurate?
That detail, coupled with the knowledge that the offspring of a male wolf mating with a female dog, would not be born and grow up in the pack, but would most likely be raised by humans. And a male dog would be extremely unlikely to be accepted by a pack in the first place, let alone be allowed to mate with the dominant female. Wolves are NOT welcoming to canine intruders on their territory, and respond violently!
It has been long hypothesised that the recessive black found in some herding breeds, but not all who have the black colouring, was introduced by wolves. (Wolf introduction is documented in GSDs, German Shepherd Dogs, in early stud books of the breed.) This goes along with the act of herding’s close resemblance to the act of hunting herd animal exhibited by wolves.
I find the whole concept highly unlikely, though not impossible.