These results led them to hypothesise that in areas where distemper outbreaks occur wolves should choose mates of the opposite coat colour to maximize the chance their cubs would have black coats. They found that black wolves were more likely to survive CDV outbreaks compared with grey wolves. The researchers analysed over 20 years-worth of data from the wolf population at Yellowstone National Park. They also found that black wolves were more common in areas where CDV outbreaks occurred. They found that wolves with CDV antibodies were more likely to be black than grey. If a wolf has CDV antibodies, then it has caught CDV in the past and survived. To test this idea, they analysed 12 wolf populations from North America, to examine whether the probability of a wolf being black was predicted by the presence of CDV antibodies. They predicted that having a black coat would be associated with the ability of wolves to survive an infection with CDV. This is because the DNA region containing the gene also encodes for a protein that plays a role in defending against infections in the lungs of mammals. The researchers postulated that this gene also plays a role in protecting against respiratory diseases such as canine distemper virus (CDV). Depending on the variant of the gene a wolf has, its coat can either be black or grey. We now have an explanation based on wolf surveys across North America, and modelling motivated by extraordinary data collected by co-authors who work in Yellowstone.’Ĭoat colour in wolves ( Canis lupus) is determined by a gene called CPD103. Professor Tim Coulson from the Department of Biology, University of Oxford who led the work explains, ‘In most parts of the world black wolves are absent or very rare, yet in North America they are common in some areas and absent in others. The reasons why have long puzzled scientists. If you were to travel from Arctic Canada and head south down the Rocky Mountains into the US toward Mexico, the further south you go, the more black wolves there are. Newswise - New research from the University of Oxford, Yellowstone National Park, and Penn State, published today in the journal Science, may have finally solved why wolves change colour across the North American continent.
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