Mammals in the News
Unique Among Animals, Kangaroos Use Tail as Fifth Leg, Scientists Find. How many legs does a kangaroo have? The correct answer, according to new research, is five. See more here http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/unique-among-animals-kangaroos-use-tail-as-fifth-leg-scientists-find/
Reversing Course on Beavers. BUTTE, Mont. — Once routinely trapped and shot as varmints, their dams obliterated by dynamite and bulldozers, beavers are getting new respect these days. Across the West, they are being welcomed into the landscape as a defense against the withering effects of a warmer and drier climate. See more here http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/science/reversing-course-on-beavers.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0
Should You Fear the Pizzly Bear? A nice NY Times article on hybridization and speciation. See more here http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/should-you-fear-the-pizzly-bear.html
Scottish wildcat benefits from six new protection sites. Six sites in Scotland have been identified by Scottish Natural Heritage as key areas for Scottish wildcats following research into the endangered cat species. See more here http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/scot-wildcat-sites.html#cr
$1 million raised to save Snow Leopards. See more here http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/snow-leopard-enterprises.html#cr
Jon
3 Comments
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vdinets
Both forms seem to be of ancient hybrid origin, but with different shares of wolf vs. coyote genes. It is unknown if they form a monophyletic group. I currently list them as subspecies of Red Wolf, but I might change my mind eventually 🙂 Here are two most recent papers on the subject:
http://canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn/article/view/1400
http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/13-0698.1
Note that when the authors of the first paper talk about “Eastern Coyote”, they actually mean the hybrid population in NJ-NS area. Coyotes in the rest of eastern USA seem to have much less wolf blood in them, although they are not pure coyotes.
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vdinets
The same study that found that coyotes from New Jersey to Nova Scotia are coywolves also found that wolves in Great Lakes region are hybrids between gray and Algonquin wolves.