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