The theories and posits regarding how many species of Wolves existed(exist) in North America historically and today is what led me to create the COYOTES, WOLVES AND COUGARS BLOG back in 2010.............The Wolf as well as the Puma(cougar/catamount/panther/painter/mountain lion) were our two most geographically widespread and charismatic pre-colonial(AD1500) carnivores(along with Black and Grizzly Bears) responsible for "top-down", trophic-equilibrium impact on Ameica's suite of fauna and flora............We all know the 80-120 pound Gray Wolf that exists in Yellowstone and our surrounding Western States,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,But what of the Red Wolf, Eastern(algonquin) Wolf, Great Lakes Wolf and Mexican Wolf?............Over the past 20 years, several distinguished teams of biologists and geneticists have weighed in with differrent opinions regarding whether Red and Eastern Wolves are subspecies of the gray wolf or stand alone distinct species..............And with the Red Wolf North Carolina recovery program under intense review as of this writing, some further hope for this species is now centering on Galveston Island(Texas) where the admixed wolf/coyote canid found there might provide researchers with some further genetic infusion possibilites to bolster the Carolina population as well as perhaps one day being a 2nd re-location site for Red Wolves................."The red wolf (Canis rufus, C. lycaon rufus, or C. lupus rufus, depending on the authority), a small, wolf-like canid that historically occupied most of the United States east of the prairies and south of the Great Lakes, is a prime example of a taxon with an uncertain evolutionary history".............."Wolves, coyotes, jackals, dogs, and the dingo comprise the genus Canis, which first appeared in the fossil record in southwestern United States and Mexico in the Miocene (~6 MYA) (Wang and Tedford 2008)"..................."The gray wolf (C. lupus), which is the only wild Canis species that currently occurs in both the Old and New World, originated in Eurasia and appears in the North American fossil record by the late Rancholabrean period (~130000 ybp) or perhaps as early as the Illinoian period (~300000 ybp; Nowak 1979)"............"(However), there is little evidence of its existence south of the glaciers until the late Rancholabrean (Nowak 2002)"................"Historic range of the gray wolf included most of North America except the eastern United States (Chambers et al. 2012)".................."In 1973, the gray wolf in the lower 48 states was listed as Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA), based on the last few remaining wolves in northern Minnesota and Michigan".............."Several other wolf-like canids are restricted to North America"............"The small forms from areas of southern Ontario and Quebec centered on Algonquin Provincial Park are commonly referred to as “eastern wolves” (or more recently “Algonquin wolves” by the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario) and are considered by some authors to be a separate species (C. lycaon) (Wilson et al. 2000; Baker et al. 2003) or subspecies (C. lupus lycaon) (Nowak 1995, 2002, 2003; Chambers et al. 2012)"..............."Wolves from the western Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada, sometimes referred to as “Great Lakes” wolves and included by some authorities as part of the subspecies C. l. nubilus, are generally intermediate in size to eastern wolves and gray wolves from western North America (Nowak 1995, 2002, 2003; Mech and Paul 2008; Mech et al. 2011)".............."Red wolves historically occupied most of the eastern United States, outside of the range of the Canis lineage referred to as lycaon"............."Another small canid historically occurred in the American southwest and Mexico, and the last remnant populations were listed under the ESA in 1976 as the Mexican wolf, a subspecies of gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi; aka “lobo”)"............."Finally, the coyote (C. latrans), the smallest wild North American wolf-like canid, was historically restricted to the western half of the continent but rapidly expanded eastward following the functional extinction of eastern wolves and red wolves (Parker 1995; Fener et al. 2005; Kays et al. 2010; Levy 2012), mating with remnant Algonquin(eastern wolves) and creating what we now call Eastern Coyotes"...............Read back 3 times and be prepared to take a Canid quiz on this fascinating subject next Monday

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-future-red-wolves-galveston-island.html

A future for red wolves may be found on Galveston Island

December 11, 2018 by Kelley Christensen, Michigan Technological University

A red wolf watching deer at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. Image Credit: B. Crawford/USFWS, 2004

Red wolves, once nearly extinct, again teeter on the abyss. New research finds red wolf ancestry on Galveston Island—providing opportunities for additional conservation action and difficult policy challenges.


Galveston Island, Texas near Houston

The American red wolf is one of United States' greatest wildlife conservation stories. Red wolves were on the brink of extinction along the American Gulf Coast during the late 1970s when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) made a bold decision to purposely remove all remaining red wolves from the wild.

Eastern Wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada

The USFWS attempted to trap all wild wolves to initiative a captive breeding program and recover the species. After several years of successful captive breeding, red wolves were released back onto the landscape in North Carolina in 1988, well before the famous wolf reintroduction effort in Yellowstone National Park.

The reintroduced population in North Carolina grew for 25 years, even while experiencing complex management issues such as red wolves hybridizing with coyotes.

Red Wolves on the North Carolina barrier islands

But the wild population is once again dwindling (from a peak of about 150 individuals in the wild in 2005 to a mere 30 or 40), amongst political controversy and pressure from a number of landowners to be able to shoot the wolves on their land.

In addition to the wild population, there are approximately 200 red wolves in captivity.

The entire red wolf population descends from 14 individual animals, of which only 12 are genetically represented.

Ghost Alleles

During this ongoing debate of how to recover the red wolf, a team of researchers including Michigan Technological University scientist Kristin Brzeski, assistant professor in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, discovered high amounts of red wolf ancestry in canids living on Galveston Island in southeast Texas.


Gray Wolves

"Our discovery that red wolf genes have persisted in Texas—after being declared extinct in the wild—was very surprising," Brzeski said. "It introduces both positive opportunities for additional conservation action and difficult policy challenges."

Brzeski and her coauthors published their findings, "Rediscovery of Red Wolf Ghost Alleles in a Canid Population Along the American Gulf Coast" Dec. 10, 2018 in the journal Genes.

Genetic analysis depicts genetic assignment of gray wolves, coyotes, red wolves and the admixed canids on Galveston Island (shown here as GI-1 and GI-2). The analysis reveals that while the Galveston Island canids do not share all alleles with red wolves, they are more genetically similar to red wolves than to coyotes. Credit: Michigan Technological University

There are just two recognized species of wolf in the United States: the gray and the red. Red wolves are smaller and slenderer than their northern cousins, and are native to the southeastern U.S. The small red wolf population has also been under threat from hybridization with coyotes.

"Red wolf research is exciting, frustrating, sad and uplifting all at the same time," Brzeski said. "They have neared total extinction, were saved through captive breeding and have been demonized by opponents—all the while continuing to be a successful, reproductively viable species that keeps on ticking, with the help of incredibly dedicated biologists, managers, captive facilities and dedicated volunteers, of course."

Mexican Wolf

The red wolf alleles—variant forms of a given gene—appear to have persisted in a population of canids on Galveston Island, likely because of their isolation from coyotes and therefore low probability of interbreeding and hybridization.

The researchers obtained tissue samples from two roadkill canids on Galveston Island and conducted analyses with genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism and mitochondrial DNA from 60 animals that represented all potential sources of ancestry for the Galveston Island canids: coyotes, red wolves and gray wolves. Brzeski and others found that the Galveston Island canids have both red wolf and coyote alleles, likely related to species interbreeding during the 1970s as coyote populations expanded across North America.

 Western Coyotes

The Galveston Island animals—known as admixed canids—do not share all alleles with contemporary red wolves, but they are genetically closer to red wolves than they are to coyotes.

Kristin Brzeski examines a red wolf for ectoparasites as part of a 2015 disease study on red wolves and coyotes in North Carolina. Credit: Michigan Technological University

This is significant because it means that red wolf genetics persist in the American south nearly 40 years after the species was thought to have become entirely extinct from that region. The population of canids on Galveston Island could represent a reservoir of red wolf genes that could be used to bolster other red wolves.

"This research shows hybrids can have conservation value through harboring extinct genes from endangered parent species," Brzeski said.

Next Steps

The research reveals the need for further genetic sampling of coyote populations in Louisiana and Texas to survey for red wolf ghost alleles. Additionally, the researchers note a need for assessments of morphological differences in canids with red wolf ancestry. The discovery of the Galveston Island canids could also create an opportunity for future reintroduction efforts outside of North Carolina.

Eastern Coyotes

"Our discovery opens up a new chapter in their story: red wolf ancestry has persisted independently without focused management action. How will this impact recovery efforts? Can we recover extinct genes through selective breeding with newly identified admixed canids? Are these individuals legally listable under the Endangered Species Act?" Brzeski said. "These are all difficult but exciting questions that are broadly important beyond red wolves that will influence wildlife conservation in an era of major climate and landscape change."

 Explore further: NPS to reestablish wolves on Isle Royale

More information: Elizabeth Heppenheimer et al. Rediscovery of Red Wolf Ghost Alleles in a Canid Population Along the American Gulf Coast, Genes (2018). DOI: 10.3390/genes9120618 

Provided by: Michigan Technological University
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 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6022562/

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Abstract

Defining units that can be afforded legal protection is a crucial, albeit challenging, step in conservation planning. As we illustrate with a case study of the red wolf (Canis rufus) from the southeastern United States, this step is especially complex when the evolutionary history of the focal taxon is uncertain. The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows listing of species, subspecies, or Distinct Population Segments (DPSs) of vertebrates. Red wolves were listed as an endangered species in 1973, and their status remains precarious. However, some recent genetic studies suggest that red wolves are part of a small wolf species (C. lycaon) specialized for heavily forested habitats of eastern North America, whereas other authors suggest that red wolves arose, perhaps within the last ~400 years, through hybridization between gray wolves (C. lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans

Is the Red Wolf a Listable Unit Under the US Endangered Species Act?

Robin S Waples,¹ Roland Kays,^2,3 Richard J Fredrickson,⁴ Krishna Pacifici,² and L Scott Mills⁵

2018 Jun; 109(5): 585–597.

Published online 2018 Jun 8. doi:  [10.1093/jhered/esy020]

Abstract

Defining units that can be afforded legal protection is a crucial, albeit challenging, step in conservation planning. As we illustrate with a case study of the red wolf (Canis rufus) from the southeastern United States, this step is especially complex when the evolutionary history of the focal taxon is uncertain.

Some of the maps proposed as reflecting the pre-colonial range of North American Wolves

The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows listing of species, subspecies, or Distinct Population Segments (DPSs) of vertebrates. Red wolves were listed as an endangered species in 1973, and their status remains precarious. However, some recent genetic studies suggest that red wolves are part of a small wolf species (C. lycaon) specialized for heavily forested habitats of eastern North America, whereas other authors suggest that red wolves arose, perhaps within the last ~400 years, through hybridization between gray wolves (C. lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans). 

Using published genetic, morphological, behavioral, and ecological data, we evaluated whether each evolutionary hypothesis would lead to a listable unit for red wolves. Although the potential hybrid origin of red wolves, combined with abundant evidence for recent hybridization with coyotes, raises questions about status as a separate species or subspecies, we conclude that under any proposed evolutionary scenario red wolves meet both criteria to be considered a DPS: they are Discrete compared with other conspecific populations, and they are Significant to the taxon to which they belong.