Our friend and Trent University(Canada) Coyote and Wolf Geneticist Linda Rutledge and I periodically converse on the question of what species of Wolf(Wolves) inhabited Eastern North America Pre-1800AD....All of you interested in this topic should seek out Linda's fine papers on this subject.........Your layman blogger(without training and any proof) adheres to the notion that where there were Buffalo(and there were Bison in the Eastern woodlands pre 1800), there were wolves large enough to prey on them...............Linda maintains that the genetic evidence available does not support a hypothesis that the gray wolf was present in Eastern North America..............However, she does feel that a gray/eastern wolf hybrid was likely the "large" wolf present in the region(and by physical makeup probably the major predator of Bison in our Eastern Forests)................I love this debate............thank you Linda for keeping me on course :)

Linda.......................always a pleasure hearing from you...............thank you for insights.......................thank you for your willingness to keep an open mind based on the degradation of DNA in historic samples..................When will we have another peer reviewed paper from you........................would love to post any and all that you publish.

My best,

Rick

-On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Linda Rutledge > wrote:
Hi Rick,

I think most would agree that there were two wolves in the east prior to European arrival - a smaller one and a larger one (as suggested by Darwin in Origin of Species). This is also consistent with indigenous knowledge. Definitely the eastern wolf (C. lycaon my preference) and probably a grey-eastern wolf hybrid (leftover from Wisconsin glacial period). As it stands however, I know of no genetic evidence for "pure" grey wolf presence during that time period. That said, we have typically only looked at the maternal lineage as it is easier to work with given the degradation of DNA in ancient/historic samples.

Regards,

Linda