The Eastern Wolf - National Wolfwatcher Coalition · “there are two varieties of the wolf...
Transcript of The Eastern Wolf - National Wolfwatcher Coalition · “there are two varieties of the wolf...
The Eastern Wolf
What we do and do not know...
Linda RutledgeTrent University
“... there are two varieties of the wolf inhabiting the
Catskill Mountains in the United States, one with a light
greyhound-like form, which pursues deer, and the other
more bulky, with shorter legs, which more frequently
attacks the shepherd’s flocks.” Charles Darwin (1859)
Greyhounds & Mastiffs
small...
small... reddish...
small... reddish... deer-eater...
small... reddish... deer-eater... eastern US/Canada
Eastern Coyote Algonquin Wolf NE Ontario Wolf
Algonquin wolves have...
a small skull
Algonquin wolves have...
a small body
Algonquin wolves have...
a reddish pelage
deer-eaters
Algonquin wolves are...
Algonquin wolves are...
greyish
Algonquin wolves are...
black
Algonquin wolves are...
moose-eaters
Algonquin wolves are...
... variable
mtDNA
mtDNA
mtDNA
grey wolves
mtDNA
grey wolves
coyotes
mtDNA
grey wolves
coyotes
eastern wolves
Y
Wilson et al. 2000
Wilson et al. 2000
Forest clearing & wolf eradication led to eastern invasion by western coyotes
Red Wolf Great Lakes Wolf Eastern Coyote
Eastern Wolves
Canis lupus x lycaonEastern Timber WolfBoreal Grey WolfOntario Grey WolfGreat Lakes WolfEastern Wolf?Canis lycaon?
Canis lycaon (x latrans x lupus)Algonquin Type Grey WolfEastern Timber WolfEastern Wolf
Canis latrans x lycaon Tweed WolfBrush WolfEastern CoyoteCoywolf
Algonquin Park Wolves:Southern Edge of a Metapopulation?
Coyote Algonquin Wolf Grey Wolf Hybrid
What we don’t know...
What we don’t know...
?
Karl Popper
“One should never quarrel about words, and
never get involved in questions of terminology. ” Karl Popper
ESA & COSEWIC think in terms of
“species” and “population size”.
2.4 billion nucleotides
2.4 billion nucleotides
2.4 billion nucleotides
19,300 genes
2.4 billion nucleotides
2.4 billion nucleotides
19,300 genes
2.4 billion nucleotides< 0.00002%
Algonquin wolf is
the eastern wolf.
Canis lycaon
Great Lakes wolf is
a grey-eastern hybrid.
Canis lupus x lycaon
Eastern coyote is
a coyote-eastern wolf hybrid.
Canis latrans x lycaon