A first genetic assessment of the newly introduced Isle Royale gray wolves (Canis lupus)

Hervey, Samuel D.; Rutledge, Linda Y.; Patterson, Brent R.; Romanski, Mark C.; Vucetich, John A.; Belant, Jerrold L.; Beyer, Dean E.; Moore, Seth A.; Brzeski, Kristin E.

doi:10.1007/s10592-021-01373-y

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…An understanding of population dynamics is necessary for successful management (Caughley, 1994), whether for: (i) increased protection, (ii) supplementation, (iii) reintroduction, and/or (iv) population control. For example, wolf populations in Yellowstone and Isle Royale have been restored through reintroductions, recolonization, and supplementation (Ripple and Beschta, 2012;Hervey et al, 2021) and the Gir lions in India have increased from less than 50 animals to ∼700 in the past 100 years because of committed protection and conservation (Jhala et al, 2019). Some carnivore populations have also been controlled to maintain ecological carrying capacity and to reduce human-carnivore conflict (e.g., American black bears Ursus americanus, Garshelis et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Trends in Survival and Mortality of Wolves in Minnesota, United States

et al. 2022

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Survival is a key determinant of population growth and persistence; computation and understanding of this metric is key to successful population management, especially for recovering populations of large carnivores such as wolves. Using a Bayesian frailty analytical approach, we evaluated information from 150 radio-tagged wolves over a 16-year time period to determine temporal trends and age- and sex-specific survival rates of wolves in Minnesota, United States. Based on our analyses, overall annual survival of wolves during the study was 0.67, with no clear evidence for age- or sex-specific differences in the population. Our model demonstrated statistical support for a temporal trend in annual survival; the highest survival was predicted at the beginning of the time series (0.87), with lowest survival (0.55) during 2018. We did not observe evidence that survival was markedly reduced during years when a regulated hunting and trapping season was implemented for wolves (years 2012–2014). However, cause-specific mortality analysis indicated that most mortality was human-caused. While the estimate for increasing human-caused mortality over time was positive, the evidence was not statistically significant. Anthropogenic causes resulted in ∼66% of known mortalities, including legal and illegal killing, and vehicular collisions. Trends in wolf survival in Minnesota may reflect an expanding distribution; wolf range has spread to areas with more human development during the study, presumably leading to increased hazard and reduced survival. Our results provide foundational information for evaluating and guiding future policy decisions pertaining to the Great Lakes wolf population.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Trends in Survival and Mortality of Wolves in Minnesota, United States

et al. 2022

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“…Although genetic rescue efforts have provided successful results for various species and populations [ 1 ], additional gene flow may be needed to ensure persistence over the long term [ 5 , 32 ]. Despite uH E, P and F IS being increased in the F2, we can clearly see that backcrossing the F1 with the Lundehund reduced the genetic distance between the F2 and the parental Lundehund (F ST = 0.134) compared to the distance between the F1 and the parental Lundehund (F ST = 0.319).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Rescue of the Highly Inbred Norwegian Lundehund

Melis

Pertoldi

Ludington

et al. 2022

Genes

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Augmenting the genetic diversity of small, inbred populations by the introduction of new individuals is often termed “genetic rescue“. An example is the Norwegian Lundehund, a small spitz dog with inbreeding-related health problems that is being crossed with three Nordic breeds, including the Norwegian Buhund. Conservation breeding decisions for the (typically) small number of outcrossed individuals are vital for managing the rescue process, and we genotyped the Lundehund (n = 12), the Buhund (n = 12), their crosses (F1, n = 7) and first-generation backcrosses to the Lundehund (F2, n = 12) with >170,000 single nucleotide polymorphism loci to compare their levels of genetic diversity. We predicted that genome-wide diversity in F2 dogs would be higher than in the Lundehund but lower than in the F1 and the Buhund, and the heterozygosity values showed the expected patterns. We also found that runs of homozygosity, extended chromosomal regions of homozygous genotypes inherited from a common ancestor, were reduced in F2 individuals compared with Lundehund individuals. Our analyses demonstrate the benefits of outcrossing but indicate that some of the acquired genetic diversity is lost following immediate backcrossing. Additional breeding among F2 crosses could therefore merit from further consideration in genetic rescue management.

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“…Isle Royale National Park personnel and partner organizations released 19 wolves into IRNP in 2018 and 2019 to supplement the population. Eight of these wolves represented a family group from Michipicoten Island, Ontario and the remaining wolves were unassociated and unrelated individuals (Hervey et al , 2021). Before restoration, only two highly inbreed wolves remained on the island (Hervey et al , 2021).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eight of these wolves represented a family group from Michipicoten Island, Ontario and the remaining wolves were unassociated and unrelated individuals (Hervey et al , 2021). Before restoration, only two highly inbreed wolves remained on the island (Hervey et al , 2021). All translocated wolves received Vectronics or Telonics radio-collars with on-board Global Positioning System (GPS) scheduled to take a location every 5 hours (NPS, unpublished data).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variation in translocated Isle Royale wolf diet reflects optimal foraging.

Sovie

Romanski²,

Orning

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Wolves (Canis lupus) can exert top-down pressure and shape ecological communities through selective predation of ungulates and beavers (Castor Canadensis). Considering their ability to shape communities through predation, understanding wolf foraging decisions is critical to predicting their ecosystem level effects. Specifically, if wolves are optimal foragers, consumers that optimize tradeoffs between cost and benefits of prey acquisition, changes in these factors may lead to prey switching or negative-density dependent selection with potential consequences for community stability. For wolves, factors affecting cost and benefits include prey vulnerability, risk, reward, and availability which can vary temporally. We described wolf diet in by frequency of occurrence and percent biomass and characterized diet in relation to optimal foraging using prey remains found in wolf scats on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, USA during May–October 2019–2020. We used logistic regression to estimate prey consumption over time. We predicted prey with temporal variation in cost (vulnerability and/or availability) such as adult and calf moose (Alces alces) and beaver to vary in wolves’ diet. We analyzed 206 scats and identified 62% of remains as beaver, 26% as and moose, and 12% as other (birds, smaller mammals, and wolves). Adult moose were more likely to occur in wolf scat in May, when moose are in poor condition following winter. Similarly, the occurrence of moose calves peaked June–mid July following parturition but before their vulnerability declined as they matured. In contrast, beaver occurrence in wolf scat did not change over time, possibly reflecting the importance of low handling cost prey items for recently introduced lone or paired wolves. Our results demonstrate that wolf diet is plastic and responsive to temporal changes in prey acquisition cost as predicted by optimal foraging theory. Temporal fluctuation in diet may influence wolves’ ecological role if prey respond to increased predation risk by altering their foraging or breeding behavior.

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A first genetic assessment of the newly introduced Isle Royale gray wolves (Canis lupus)

Cited by 8 publications

References 55 publications

Recent Trends in Survival and Mortality of Wolves in Minnesota, United States

Recent Trends in Survival and Mortality of Wolves in Minnesota, United States

Genetic Rescue of the Highly Inbred Norwegian Lundehund

Temporal variation in translocated Isle Royale wolf diet reflects optimal foraging.

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