Erin.........I will post your entire letter for Friday reading................Appreciate your thoughtful note and I have read all...................I too am an avocate,,,,,,,,,I think it useful to publish the other sides perspectives.............This way, we all know what information has to shouted out to all of us so that the lies and half truths are quieted and disposed of....................Are you a biologist or naturalist or just a well informed, well read advocate like myself?
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On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Dear Rick Meril,
This concerns a recent post in your blog, found here: http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com/2011/09/very-well-researched-blogger-makes.html
Sulfide(author of this article) is a co-founder of an anti-wolf group on Deviantart, and I'd beg to differ that she/he is "very well researched".
Take this comment, for instance: 'They love to say, "a wolf is a wolf" and "wolves don't recognize invisible lines" – but will then turn around and say, "preserve the Mexican gray wolf!" Kinda contradictory, ain't it?'
It isn't in the least bit contradictory. Mexican wolves are deeply diverged from other North American wolf lineages. It is suspected that they may be descendants of some of the first wolves to migrate onto the continent some 750,000 years ago. During the last glaciation the southern US and Mexico was one of several refugiums for gray wolves. Massive glaciers are hardly invisible lines! Where ranges of subspecies did finally meet, there was admixture, but not enough to erase what their unique paths had shaped, and perhaps inclinations to seek out the familiar (see below). Only human violence on a mass scale nearly resulted in a complete loss:
"Therefore, we suggest restoration goals might be reconsidered so as to better restore wolves to past population sizes and enable them to significantly influence the dynamics of the Rocky Mountain ecosystem. The Mexican wolf can be an integral part of this reintroduction plan. However, rather than following carefully delineated subspecific boundaries based on historic and morphologic data, the genetic evidence suggests a southern clade of haplotypes extended into the central plains and intergraded with haplotypes characteristic of Northern populations. Our genetic results provide a wider geographical mandate for reintroduction and suggest admixture was a characteristic of past populations that might enhance the adaptive potential of reintroduced stocks." - Legacy lost: genetic variability and population size of extirpated US grey wolves (Canis lupus), Jennifer A. Leonard et al - http://www.environment.ucla.edu/ctr/research/ConGen/Leonard_Legacy.pdf
Coastal wolves from southeast Alaska, another distinct subspecies (Canis lupus ligoni), also originated from a southern refugium and contain some of the last remnants of the genetic diversity from the population of 380,000 gray wolves which were destroyed in the western US. The size difference between wolves in the Canadian north and wolves in the southwestern US isn't simply Bergmann's Rule as sulfide indicates. It is also centrifugal evolution where the highest rates of divergence are in the periphery of a species' range. This has been determined through morphological studies of modern wolf skulls. Here, it is thought to result from Old World wolves arriving in waves and then becoming isolated in the various glacial refugium.
From the same paper sited above: "The spread of boreal forest in Canada began with the retreat of the glacial ice sheets about 12,000 years ago and reached its current distribution about 8,000 years ago (Lessa et al. 2003). The area south of the ice sheets in the southern US and Mexico was likely a refugium for grey wolves during the last glaciation and consequently served as a source of grey wolf colonists for deglaciated Canada.
As observed in Europe, populations of plants and animals in deglaciated areas have reduced levels of variation and contain fewer mitochondrial haplotypes (Hewitt 2002). Therefore, an unfortunate consequence of southern US and Mexico being a late Pleistocene refugium is that the eradication of grey wolves from these areas disproportionately affected the current genetic diversity of North American grey wolves.
For example, had the extinction occurred over a similar area in Alaska, as represented by Denali National Park, Kenai Peninsula and Anaktuvuk populations, only one haplotype would have been lost, and that haplotype (lu37) was only found in a single individual. Consequently, with regard to genetic diversity, refugial populations should have high priority for conservation (Taberlet & Cheddadi 2002; Tzedakis et al. 2002)."
More information can be found in these papers:
L. E. Carmichael. 2007. Genetics of Northern wolf populations - http://env.gov.nu.ca/sites/default/files/genetics%20of%20northern%20wolf%20-%20final%20wildlife%2021.pdf - Government of Nunavut, Department of Environment, Final Wildlife Report: 21, Iqaluit, 45 pp. (Complete text)
Byron V. Weckworth,* Sandra L. Talbot, and Joseph A. Cook. 2010. Phylogeography of wolves (Canis lupus) in the Pacific Northwest - http://www.msb.unm.edu/mammals/documents/Weckworth_etal_CoastalCanis2010_JMamm.pdf - Journal of Mammalogy, 91(2):363–375 (Complete text)
Byron V. Weckworth,* Natalie G. Dawson, Sandra L. Talbot, Melanie J. Flamme, and Joseph A. Cook. 2011. Going Coastal: Shared Evolutionary History between Coastal British Columbia and Southeast Alaska Wolves (Canis lupus) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087762/ - PLoS One, 6(5): e19582. (Complete text)
Sulfide continues: 'In regards to Dr. Mech's article titled Canis lupus soupus, he pointed out that there is no such thing as behavioral differences as seen in different subspecies (or, rather, that there has never been a definite study to prove this).'
The note in parentheses is key here. However, there are some interesting studies in this vein.
Research suggests that gray wolves are not habitat generalists as commonly accepted, but habitat or trophic specialists. Dispersers seek out natal, familiar habitat and prey species. In the absence of topographic barriers, genetic differentiation is clearly influenced by these factors. In Geffen's study 70% of genetic variations were explained by differences in vegetation.
Carmichael, L. E., J. A. Nagy, N. C. Larter, and C. Strobeck. 2001. Prey specialization may influence patterns of gene flow of wolves of the Canadian Northwest - http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/_live/documents/content/Journal_Publications43.pdf - Molecular Ecology 10:2787-2798. (Complete text)
Geffen, E., M. J. Anderson, and R. K. Wayne. 2004. Climate and habitat barriers to dispersal in the highly mobile grey wolf -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15245420 - Molecular Ecology 13:2481-2490. (Abstract only. Pay to play)
Sacks, B. N., S. K. Brown, and H. B. Ernest. 2004. Population structure of California coyotes corresponds to habitat-specific breaks and illuminates species history - http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/cdcg/pubs/Sacksetal2004-MolecEcol.pdf - Molecular Ecology 13:1265-1275. (Complete text)
Carmichael, L. E., J. Krizan, J. A. Nagy, E. Fuglei, M. Dumond, D. Johnson, A. Veitch, D. Berteaux, and C. Strobeck. 2007. Historical and ecological determinants of genetic structure in arctic canids - http://chairedb.uqar.qc.ca/documents/2007Carmichaeletal.MolEcol_000.pdf - Molecular Ecology 16:3466-3483. (Complete text)
* Musiani, M., J. A. Leonard, H. D. Cluff, C. C. Gates, S. Mariani, P. C. Paquet, C. Vila, and R. K. Wayne. 2007. Differentiation of tundra/taiga and boreal coniferous forest wolves: genetics, coat colour and association with migratory caribou - http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/bitstream/10088/6466/1/Musiani_0274differentiation_of_tun.pdf - Molecular Ecology 16:4149-4170. (Complete text)
Muñoz-Fuentes, V., C.T. Darimont, R.K. Wayne, P. C. Paquet, and J.A. Leonard. 2009. Ecological factors drive genetic differentiation in British Columbia gray wolves - http://www.raincoast.org/files/publications/papers/Munoz_et_al_2009_JBiogeog.pdf - Journal of Biogeography 31: 1516-1531. (Complete text)
Sulfide says: '(much like the wolf advocates that cheer for the reintroduction saying that the wolves from Canada were already on their way - even though new, yet-not-so-new, research done by one of their very own, Robert Ream, proves that the wolves were actually headed further north, back into Canada).'
One of our very own? What does that mean? Does s/he mean Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks commission chairman who stated that congressional action was warranted in their delisting? Right.
Wolves from across the invisible line were already repopulating northwestern Montana before the human aided reintroduction occurred. It happened. Where is the proof that they were going to suddenly pack up for "Canada" (which is solely a human concept) and then somehow collectively decide, "That's it, you see this invisible line that we can't see? We are never going south of it again!" The point is they can cross it. They have and do. It is not a real barrier. Wolves are not Canadian on one side and American on the other. Wolves are not people.
Sulfide says: 'the biologists and advocates - continuously say that wolves (or cougars) don't recognize invisible lines drawn in the ground, but will then turn around and say "protect this animal, it is so unique and there are only x amount left! ... Remember, I truly believe that subspecies are unique. It is the biologists and advocates who try to say they aren't (but then will turn around and say they are only when it fits their agenda).'
As a wolf advocate, I've never said there are no unique subspecies. Lines drawn on a map by humans ARE unfathomable and meaningless to wolves. This isn't contradictory. Pointing to the most diverged forms along the periphery to compare with those inhabiting the northern Rockies is also a bit disingenuous. Furthermore, in regions where a potentially distinct subspecies has been wiped out, it is far more beneficial to ecosystems to have a wolf there than none at all. Wolves are enough alike to not have to halt restoration efforts.
Regards,
Erin Barca
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