The place where wolves could soon return
By Adam Weymouth BBC News Magazine
14 October 2015 Magazine
The last wolf in the UK was shot centuries ago, but now a "rewilding" process could see them return to Scotland. Adam Weymouth hiked across the Scottish Highlands in the footsteps of this lost species.
New article in Canid Biology & Conservation: DNA analysis confirms African wolf in Morocco
Siân Waters, Ahmed El Harrad, Zouhair Amhaouch, Lahcen Taiqui and Helen Senn
Abstract
"We collected hair samples from two road-killed animals known as golden jackals Canis aureus in Bouhachem forest in northern Morocco. Analysis of 353bp of cytochrome B and 296 bp of d-loop of the mitochondrial genome placed these two individuals in the same lineage of African wolf Canis lupus lupaster identified by Gaubert et al. (2012). This is the first DNA evidence for the presence of this taxon in Morocco."
Keywords: African wolf, Bouhachem forest, DNA analysis, mitochondrial genome, Morocco
First European Jackal found in Denmark - The Local (Photo: Colourbox)
The wolves who have recently reestablished themselves in Denmark after a nearly 200-year absence may have some competition on the food chain.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife released photos of five wolf pups with a pair of adults, one of them thought to be the wolf seen in the spring. It is the first confirmed sighting of a gray wolf pack in modern California history.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article31632431.html
Swedish researchers say that dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than some other studies suggest.
A genetic study indicates that dogs may have begun to split from wolves 27,000 years ago.
The discovery, in Current Biology, challenges the view that dogs were domesticated much more recently, around 15,000 years ago as humans changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers.
The study might also explain the deep bond between dogs and humans.
Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32691843
"On a Dhole Trail: Examining Ecological and Anthropogenic Correlates of Dhole Habitat Occupancy in the Western Ghats of India", in PLoS One.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0098803
The lead author is Arjun Srivathsa, an alumnus of the post-graduate course in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, jointly run by WCS-India and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). The paper deals with assessing factors that influence distribution and habitat-use patterns of the endangered Asiatic Wild dog (dhole) in the Western Ghats landscape.
