Surprising Ancestry: People have long known that black wolves are much more common in North America than elsewhere. Now with the help of DNA testing, we know why...a bit of domestication.
The scientists used molecular genetic techniques to analyze DNA sequences from 150 wolves, about half of them black, in Yellowstone National Park, which covers parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. They found that a novel mutated variant of a gene in dogs, known as the K locus, is responsible for black coat color and was transferred to wolves through mating.
The biologists are unsure of when the black coat color was transferred from dogs to wolves, but they believe it was not a recent occurrence; the black coat could not have spread as widely as it has throughout North America in just a few hundred years, they say. They suspect the transfer took place sometime before the arrival of Europeans to North America and involved dogs that were here with Native Americans.
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"Although genes that evolve under domestication may be transferred to wild species, they generally do not proliferate in the wild because the natural context is so different from that under domestication," Wayne said. "No one would have guessed that the common black coat color in North American wolves came from dogs — there is no precedent for it. Moreover, for whatever reason, the transfer of the black coat-color gene from dogs to wolves and its success in the wild occurred uniquely in North America.
But for instance with camels and horses, it's different...nearly all of what's found in the wild are feral, domesticated animals (previous blogs here and here).
"Apparently, natural selection has increased the frequency of black coat color dramatically in wolf populations across North America," Wayne said. "It must have adaptive value that we don't yet understand. It could be camouflage, or strengthening the immune system to combat pathogens, or it could reflect a preference to mate with individuals of a different coat color."
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"We're trying to figure out whether the black coat color provides a fitness or behavioral advantage," she added, noting that Yellowstone National Park has a wealth of observational data that "we can integrate with our genetic data.
Natural selection doesn't come with guarantees.
Not So Wild: It's thought that donkeys--sometimes called burros--are domesticated versions of the African wild ass. Recent research on skeletons from a funerary in Egypt has provided the earliest evidence thus far of that domestication.
The research team examined the 5,000-year-old Abydos skeletons along with 53 modern donkey and African wild ass skeletons. Analysis showed that the Abydos metacarpals were similar in overall proportions to those of wild ass, but individual measurements varied. Mid-shaft breadths resembled wild ass, but mid-shaft depths and distal breadths were intermediate between wild ass and domestic donkey.
Despite this, all the Abydos skeletons exhibited a range of wear and other pathologies on their bones consistent with load carrying. Morphological similarities to wild ass show that despite their use as beasts of burden, donkeys were still undergoing considerable phenotypic change during the early dynastic period in Egypt. This pattern is consistent with recent studies of other domestic animals that suggest that the process of domestication is slower and more complicated than had been previously thought.
There are only about 570 African wild asses left in the wild. They live in the Horn of Africa.
More Domesticated Imports: The Old World is home to all members of the swine family (Suidae). Our native javelina (the collared peccary, also sometimes called a musk hog) is in a different family and can't interbreed with the various domesticated pigs and boars that have escaped or been released here.
Feral swine are found in much of the South, plus various parts of the Midwest, West, and New England (map here)...and Hawaii. For whatever reason, that map doesn't make clear their presence in Oregon. So here are a couple of maps of where they can be found...the first is from 2004 and the second is from ODF's webpage on them.
The estimate is that there are somewhere betwen 500 and 2000 feral swine in the state, with the majority of them probably on private land. From an article in the most recent Eugene Weekly:
Most of the swine that have been spotted were found on private land. Given the nature of the pigs — an aggressive, land destroying, livestock-killing, disease-carrying invasive species — one might assume that landowners would welcome whole-hog eradication.
Not so, says Boatner of the ODFW. He says some landowners make money allowing hunters to stalk the elusive swine on their property. According to the website for Clover Creek Ranch, located near Madras, one of the areas ODFW lists as having a feral pig population, it will run you $800 to trophy hunt a 400 to 800 pound feral hog on the 2,200 acre ranch (and you’d better hope you shoot that hog at dawn because there’s an extra $100 fee for skinning after dark).
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Despite the thousands that the pig problem could cost Oregonians, the Feral Swine Action Plan hasn’t really been getting any action, says Sytsma. The plan calls for legislation to control the source of the swine, population assessment, eradication and monitoring to prevent the pigs from returning, but all these things cost money, and funding is in short supply.
The one thing that has happened is House Bill 2221, which was recently introduced to Oregon’s Legislature by Gov. Ted Kulongoski on behalf of ODFW. The bill would make the sale or purchase of feral swine hunts illegal, with both fines and the loss of hunting licenses as punishment. It would also make it illegal for landowners to “knowingly” let feral swine roam their lands.
Violation of that "knowingly" part is a Class A misdemeanor.
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