Mackenzie River Wolf (Canis lupus mackenzii) Alexander Archipelago Wolf (Canis lupus ligoni) Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf (Canis lupus irremotus) Vancouver Island Wolf (Canis lupus crassodon) British Columbian Wolf (Canis lupus columbianus) New Guinea Singing Dog (Canis lupus dingo)

The 27 Types of Wolves: Your Complete Guide.

“The influence of humans on the biology of North American wolves is quite deep, given that the gene for black coat color likely originated in domestic dogs, which humans introduced to North America thousands of years ago,” MacNulty said. Although black wolves are more likely to survive CDV outbreaks, gray wolves have higher reproductive success, so black wolves do better when CDV is prevalent and gray wolves when it is rare. This led the team to hypothesize that in areas where distemper outbreaks occur regularly, as in Yellowstone National Park, wolves may choose mates of the opposite color to maximize the chance their pups would have black coats.

As a result, such “homozygote” black wolves are quite rare in the Yellowstone population.īut this didn’t explain how both coat colors are maintained. Black wolves with two copies of the gene were less likely to survive, even in the absence of a distemper outbreak, for reasons that remain unclear. They analyzed over 20 years’ worth of data from the wolf population at Yellowstone and found that black wolves - specifically those with a single copy of the gene that causes black coat color - were more likely to survive CDV outbreaks than gray wolves. The team next turned to Yellowstone National Park, where black and gray wolves are equally prevalent (roughly) and CDV outbreaks occur about every five years. They also found that black wolves were more common in areas where relatively frequent outbreaks occurred. The team found that wolves with CDV antibodies were more likely to be black than gray. To test the idea, the researchers analyzed 12 wolf populations from North America to examine whether the probability of a wolf having a black coat was predicted by the presence of CDV antibodies. They predicted that having a black coat would be associated with an ability to survive an infection with CDV in wolves.

The DNA region containing the gene also encodes for a protein that plays a role in defending against infections in the respiratory tract of dogs. The research team, led by Sarah Cubaynes from the University of Montpellier, postulated that in addition to controlling coat color, the gene for a black coat might also play a role in protecting against CDV. The origins of canine distemper are unclear, but one hypothesis holds that the disease emerged in South America during the 1700s through the cross-species transfer of the measles virus - introduced by conquistadors - from humans to dogs. The gene for black coat color was likely introduced to North American wolves from domesticated dogs within the past 7,000 years, according to earlier research. The new research, published in the journal Science, indicates that wolves may signal their resistance to canine distemper virus via their coat color, which could enable individuals to identify partners that can provide them with disease-resistant offspring. Variations in color are often used by animals to assess the fitness of potential mates. “This study highlights the profound and varied effects that disease can have on the ecology, evolution, and behavior of wild animal populations,” MacNulty said. Now a team that includes researcher Dan MacNulty, associate professor in the department of Wildland Resources, has found that changes in the proportion of black wolves may be due to changes in the frequency of canine distemper virus (CDV) disease outbreaks, coupled with the mating behavior of the wolves. A pattern in wolf populations has long puzzled scientists - the prevalence of black wolves over gray wolves increases southward along the Rocky Mountain crest.

Black grey wolf