Wolf conflicts Skogen, Ketil; Krange, Olve; Figari, Helene
2017., 2017, 2017-04-30, Volume:
1
eBook
Wolf populations have recently made a comeback in Northern Europe and North America. These large carnivores can cause predictable conflicts by preying on livestock, and competing with hunters for ...game. But their arrivals often become deeply embedded in more general societal tensions, which arise alongside processes of social change that put considerable pressure on rural communities and on the rural working class in particular. Based on research and case studies conducted in Norway, Wolf Conflicts discusses various aspects of this complex picture, including conflicts over land use and conservation, and more general patterns of hegemony and resistance in modern societies
Large carnivore populations are expanding across Europe, while popular support for the process continues to grow. This development has been hailed as a hopeful sign for wildlife recovery, aligning ...with the ambition of the UN 2030 Framework to be "living in harmony with nature by 2050". However, reintegrating carnivores in multi-use landscapes is challenging, especially where there are disagreements about their belonging, and where costs and benefits of their presence are incurred at different spatial scales. Despite these challenges, few have studied what fosters and perpetuates durable coexistence, or how to work proactively with communities facing the return carnivores. This thesis addresses this gap through a cross-case synthesis of communities at different states of wolf expansion in Spain: one known for long-established coexistence, one where wolves have returned in recent decades and one where they are expected to return imminently. Adopting a qualitative research design and using a diverse methodological toolkit, the thesis explores the social and ecological conditions which help or hinder adaptation to wolves within each community. Each of its empirical chapters focuses on a specific element of coexistence: the underpinnings of established coexistence; the lessons about adaptive needs and capacities from each state of wolf presence; and the assumptions and priorities which influence how coexistence is understood and governed. The thesis demonstrates that functional and neutral relationships have been overlooked by a policy-reality that has remained focussed on addressing conflicts. It also finds that governing institutions in Spain have a retroactive approach to wolf expansion: intervening once wolves have already caused damage and/or social disagreement. It identifies a range of socio-economic vulnerabilities which undermine the willingness and capacity of communities to adapt to wolves, including economic precarity, scrub encroachment and loss of social services. Finally, it identifies power-knowledge hierarchies within Spanish and European conservation institutions which inhibit inclusive governance approaches. These issues perpetuate an institutional focus on disciplining conduct and mitigating wolf impacts, rather than addressing the underlying drivers of conflicts or building on successful initiatives and practices. Through these findings, the thesis advances knowledge on the elements of legitimate and dynamic governance of wildlife recovery in the Anthropocene, and the barriers which prevent just transformation to positive and durable coexistence.
To identify genetic changes underlying dog domestication and reconstruct their early evolutionary history, we generated high-quality genome sequences from three gray wolves, one from each of the ...three putative centers of dog domestication, two basal dog lineages (Basenji and Dingo) and a golden jackal as an outgroup. Analysis of these sequences supports a demographic model in which dogs and wolves diverged through a dynamic process involving population bottlenecks in both lineages and post-divergence gene flow. In dogs, the domestication bottleneck involved at least a 16-fold reduction in population size, a much more severe bottleneck than estimated previously. A sharp bottleneck in wolves occurred soon after their divergence from dogs, implying that the pool of diversity from which dogs arose was substantially larger than represented by modern wolf populations. We narrow the plausible range for the date of initial dog domestication to an interval spanning 11-16 thousand years ago, predating the rise of agriculture. In light of this finding, we expand upon previous work regarding the increase in copy number of the amylase gene (AMY2B) in dogs, which is believed to have aided digestion of starch in agricultural refuse. We find standing variation for amylase copy number variation in wolves and little or no copy number increase in the Dingo and Husky lineages. In conjunction with the estimated timing of dog origins, these results provide additional support to archaeological finds, suggesting the earliest dogs arose alongside hunter-gathers rather than agriculturists. Regarding the geographic origin of dogs, we find that, surprisingly, none of the extant wolf lineages from putative domestication centers is more closely related to dogs, and, instead, the sampled wolves form a sister monophyletic clade. This result, in combination with dog-wolf admixture during the process of domestication, suggests that a re-evaluation of past hypotheses regarding dog origins is necessary.
The evolutionary history of dogs in the Americas Ní Leathlobhair, Máire; Perri, Angela R; Irving-Pease, Evan K ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
2018-Jul-06, 2018-07-06, 20180706, Volume:
361, Issue:
6397
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Dogs were present in the Americas before the arrival of European colonists, but the origin and fate of these precontact dogs are largely unknown. We sequenced 71 mitochondrial and 7 nuclear genomes ...from ancient North American and Siberian dogs from time frames spanning ~9000 years. Our analysis indicates that American dogs were not derived from North American wolves. Instead, American dogs form a monophyletic lineage that likely originated in Siberia and dispersed into the Americas alongside people. After the arrival of Europeans, native American dogs almost completely disappeared, leaving a minimal genetic legacy in modern dog populations. The closest detectable extant lineage to precontact American dogs is the canine transmissible venereal tumor, a contagious cancer clone derived from an individual dog that lived up to 8000 years ago.
Evolution of facial muscle anatomy in dogs Kaminski, Juliane; Waller, Bridget M.; Diogo, Rui ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
07/2019, Volume:
116, Issue:
29
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Domestication shaped wolves into dogs and transformed both their behavior and their anatomy. Here we show that, in only 33,000 y, domestication transformed the facial muscle anatomy of dogs ...specifically for facial communication with humans. Based on dissections of dog and wolf heads, we show that the levator anguli oculi medialis, a muscle responsible for raising the inner eyebrow intensely, is uniformly present in dogs but not in wolves. Behavioral data, collected from dogs and wolves, show that dogs produce the eyebrow movement significantly more often and with higher intensity than wolves do, with highest-intensity movements produced exclusively by dogs. Interestingly, this movement increases paedomorphism and resembles an expression that humans produce when sad, so its production in dogs may trigger a nurturing response in humans. We hypothesize that dogs with expressive eyebrows had a selection advantage and that “puppy dog eyes” are the result of selection based on humans’ preferences.
Eastern wolves have hybridized extensively with coyotes and gray wolves and are listed as a ‘species of special concern’ in Canada. However, a distinct population of eastern wolves has been ...identified in Algonquin Provincial Park (APP) in Ontario. Previous studies of the diverse Canis hybrid zone adjacent to APP have not linked genetic analysis with field data to investigate genotype‐specific morphology or determine how resident animals of different ancestry are distributed across the landscape in relation to heterogeneous environmental conditions. Accordingly, we studied resident wolves and coyotes in and adjacent to APP to identify distinct Canis types, clarify the extent of the APP eastern wolf population beyond the park boundaries and investigate fine‐scale spatial genetic structure and landscape–genotype associations in the hybrid zone. We documented three genetically distinct Canis types within the APP region that also differed morphologically, corresponding to putative gray wolves, eastern wolves and coyotes. We also documented a substantial number of hybrid individuals (36%) that were admixed between 2 or 3 of the Canis types. Breeding eastern wolves were less common outside of APP, but occurred in some unprotected areas where they were sympatric with a diverse combination of coyotes, gray wolves and hybrids. We found significant spatial genetic structure and identified a steep cline extending west from APP where the dominant genotype shifted abruptly from eastern wolves to coyotes and hybrids. The genotypic pattern to the south and northwest was a more complex mosaic of alternating genotypes. We modelled genetic ancestry in response to prey availability and human disturbance and found that individuals with greater wolf ancestry occupied areas of higher moose density and fewer roads. Our results clarify the structure of the Canis hybrid zone adjacent to APP and provide unique insight into environmental conditions influencing hybridization dynamics between wolves and coyotes.
Admixture resulting from natural dispersal processes can potentially generate novel phenotypic variation that may facilitate persistence in changing environments or result in the loss of ...population-specific adaptations. Yet, under the US Endangered Species Act, policy is limited for management of individuals whose ancestry includes a protected taxon; therefore, they are generally not protected under the Act. This issue is exemplified by the recently re-established grey wolves of the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon, USA. This population was likely founded by two phenotypically and genetically distinct wolf ecotypes: Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) forest and coastal rainforest. The latter is considered potentially threatened in southeast Alaska and thus the source of migrants may affect plans for their protection. To assess the genetic source of the re-established population, we sequenced a ~ 300 bp portion of the mitochondrial control region and ~ 5 Mbp of the nuclear genome. Genetic analysis revealed that the Washington wolves share ancestry with both wolf ecotypes, whereas the Oregon population shares ancestry with NRM forest wolves only. Using ecological niche modelling, we found that the Pacific Northwest states contain environments suitable for each ecotype, with wolf packs established in both environmental types. Continued migration from coastal rainforest and NRM forest source populations may increase the genetic diversity of the Pacific Northwest population. However, this admixed population challenges traditional management regimes given that admixture occurs between an adaptively distinct ecotype and a more abundant reintroduced interior form. Our results emphasize the need for a more precise US policy to address the general problem of admixture in the management of endangered species, subspecies, and distinct population segments.
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