Abstract

Rediscovering species once thought to be extinct or on the edge of extinction is rare. Red wolves have been extinct along the American Gulf Coast since 1980, with their last populations found in coastal Louisiana and Texas. We report the rediscovery of red wolf ghost alleles in a canid population on Galveston Island, Texas. We analyzed over 7000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 60 canid representatives from all legally recognized North American Canis species and two phenotypically ambiguous canids from Galveston Island. We found notably high Bayesian cluster assignments of the Galveston canids to captive red wolves with extensive sharing of red wolf private alleles. Today, the only known extant wild red wolves persist in a reintroduced population in North Carolina, which is dwindling amongst political and taxonomic controversy. Our rediscovery of red wolf ancestry after almost 40 years introduces both positive opportunities for additional conservation action and difficult policy challenges.

Details

Title
Rediscovery of Red Wolf Ghost Alleles in a Canid Population Along the American Gulf Coast
Author
Heppenheimer, Elizabeth 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Brzeski, Kristin E 2 ; Wooten, Ron 3 ; Waddell, William 4 ; Rutledge, Linda Y 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chamberlain, Michael J 6 ; Stahler, Daniel R 7 ; Hinton, Joseph W 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; vonHoldt, Bridgett M 1 

1  Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA 
2  Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; School of Forest Resources & Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA 
3  Wildlife Biologist, Galveston, TX 77550, USA 
4  Zoological and Environmental Education Department, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Tacoma, WA 98407, USA 
5  Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Biology Department, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9L 1Z8, Canada 
6  Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA 
7  Yellowstone Center for Resources, National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190, USA 
First page
618
Publication year
2018
Publication date
2018
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734425
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9120618
ProQuest document ID
2582803136
Copyright
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.