Black wolves can better fight off certain diseases and so are preferred mates for gray wolves, according to a new study.
Thousands of years ago, wolves bred with black dogs. The tryst didn’t just give some of today’s wolves a black coat—it has also helped them survive in parts of North America where a measleslike virus can run rampant, according to a new study. That’s because gray wolves are more likely to mate with black wolves when this virus is present—a rare demonstration in the wild of how pathogens can drive evolution.
Meanwhile, scientists had long puzzled over why there are more black wolves in Mexico than in Canada, or why they’re more numerous farther south and in the Rocky Mountains. Tim Coulson and Sarah Cubaynes wondered whether their genes had something to do with it. Over the next decade, she and her collaborators tallied coat color and disease prevalence—as indicated by the presence of CDV antibodies—in 12 populations of wolves across North America, collecting data on more than 1100 individuals. They also reanalyzed the Yellowstone packs using data collected through 2020. “[It’s] not easy to gather such impressive data sets,” says Roulin, who was not involved with the work.in that group, Cubaynes, Coulson, and their colleagues report today in.
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