![]() ![]() See below for full citations and links to the full papers: Statewide, Minnesota’s percentage of black wolves is now estimated at 1.5 to 2 percent.Īs always, we thank the many hard-working wildlife biologists whose research makes articles like this one possible. By 1967-69, incidence of black wolves in the same area had increased to 3.6 percent.” “Wholesale persecution of the wolf in Minnesota ended in 1965 with the repeal of the bounty on wolves, so wolves began proliferating in the state, no doubt some immigrating from Canada to the north. Three conservation officers who aerially hunted or trapped wolves before 1960 in the same area indicated that “out of 580 wolves taken, only four were black,” which is less than one percent. Stenlund observed 318 wolves during that time period. When Milt Stenlund shared his research in 1955, he made no mention of black wolves in the Superior National Forest during 1948-52. Mech wrote a paper in 2009 that explains this, in part, titled “What is the taxonomic identity of Minnesota wolves?”Ī key finding from that paper is that black wolves appear to be relative newcomers to Minnesota. It does appear as though black wolves are more common in places like Minnesota now than they used to be. That is to say, since fewer pups from black wolves survive, it stands to reason that there’d be fewer to reproduce and pass along the gene. The origin of the K-locus in wolves likely came from hybridization between dogs and wolves in northwest North America within the last 7,000 years as early humans brought domestic dogs across the Bering Land Bridge.”Ī 2013 research paper on this topic by Daniel Stahler, Daniel MacNulty, Robert Wayne, Bridgett vonHoldt and Douglas Smith titled “The adaptive value of morphological, behavioural and life-history traits in reproductive female wolves” found that black-colored females had 25 percent fewer surviving pups than grey-colored females, “which likely contributed to the maintenance of coat colour polymorphism in this system.” “The presence of black coats was due to a single gene (a beta defensin gene termed CBD103 or the K-locus), with all black coated individuals carrying a mutation linked to this coat color – a mutation believed to have originated in domestic dogs of the Old World. The National Park Service website on Yellowstone National Park provides this explanation: Learn more about that by following this link. During distemper outbreaks, black wolves survive at a higher rate than gray wolves.The same study concludes that this difference in aggression may be “due to differences in cortisol levels.”.It also found that gray-colored wolves were more likely than a black-colored wolf to chase other wolves. This study examines this occurrence in detail. ![]() ![]() Gray-colored wolves are more aggressive than black-colored wolves.There are several differences between gray wolves and black wolves that scientists have uncovered. WolfLink Virtual Learning for adults & groups. ![]()
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