Talk:Red wolf/Archive 1

Archive 1

Eastern Canadian Wolf

I was fortunate enough to have attended a seminar on the Eastern Canadian Wolf while stationed at Queen's University Biological Station, and so I've started (slowly) a page on the Eastern Canadian Wolf. I also added in the page that there is also genetic evidence to support the descent from the Red Wolf based on DNA samples from existing Canadian wolves in Algonquin Park and museum samples of Red Wolves obtained from several southern US states. Hearing it from the horse's mouth makes it hard to have it in writing! Just to let you guys know, and great work so far on this page. --Waterspyder 21:11, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

WHUT?

Just because an animal was extinct doesn't mean they were not in captivity! They could have been extinct from the wild not from captivity . They must have mated some red wolfs and let them in the wild and they made it happen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.250.9.251 (talk • contribs)

I'm confused:

Three subspecies of Red Wolf are recognised. Canis rufus floridanus has been extinct since 1930. Canis rufus rufus was declared extinct by 1970. And finally, Canis rufus gregoryi, now focused on in wolf recovery plans, became extinct in the wild by 1980.

There are around 270 remaining Red Wolves; about 100 in the wild in North Carolina and 170 in captivity.

Does this mean that there are other red wolves still in the wild who are not members of the three subspecies? RickK 01:52, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I was going to post the same complaint, Rick. Then I re-read it and figured out what the entry was trying to say - with some difficulty, I might add. No, it doesn't mean that, it means that Canis rufus gregoryi is the only surviving subspecies. But it's very badly written - I'll attend to it shortly. (But first, I'll look them up again and do some double-checking.) Tannin 02:00, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Tannin. If I'd understood it, I would have changed it myself.  :) RickK 02:02, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one ever fixed that. I just did now, 2 years later. Redwolf24 9 July 2005 12:22 (UTC)

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Below text was moved here from "Texas red wolf", which I (Infrogmation) turned into a redirect to this article:

"Texas redwolves are extinct because farmers thought they were eating their cattle so the killed them almost to the pointof extincttion. in 1970 they started to breed them but it did not work."

Additions

The article consisted of the intro and a long section on taxonomy with nothing about habits, social structure or even physical appearance. I have added two sections which I think fills it out nicely. Marskell 17:20, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: Adding External Links - I added a link to my site and it was deleted. My website is about wolves and has several pages and sections dedicated to the red wolf. Just trying to figure out why it was removed and what changes I need to make to have it listed here. I realize Wikipedia is not a link exchange or advertising pool, but my site is about wolves and is a valued resource in regards to the red wolf. Iamloup (talk) 22:45, 20 February 2009 (UTC) iamloup

Are you sure you added it here? I don't see it in your contributions [1].—Sandahl (talk) 22:49, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I thought I did, I got a message that said it was removed and if I had questions to visit the talk page. I tried to post it again under my user name - I just got an account so maybe that makes the difference? Not sure. Thanks. Iamloup (talk) 22:54, 20 February 2009 (UTC)iamloup

You might not have been logged in when you added it. Check just under login where it says keep me logged in for 30 days and it will prevent you from inadvertently revealing your IP .—Sandahl (talk) 23:04, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. It is there now - so I guess it worked. I am a noob here but trying to figure it all out. Iamloup (talk) 23:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)Iamloup

Hybridization

Is there any data on whether Red Wolf-Grey Wolf/Coyote hybrids are in fact fertile or not? If some info on that could be found, it could shed some more ligh on the problem: If they are fertile, that could mean they're of the same species; if not, they would probably be of the same genus but not the species. --Arny 21:23, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm 99% on this (that they are fertile) but we don't have a definite source, so that would be good until I track down one tomorrow (or next year...). Lupus (wolves) and familiaris (dogs) have fertile hybrids and I don't see why rufus and latrans would not. The whole lot of them can interbreed as far as I know. Indeed, the canines are a bad choice if you want to argue "species" = "intra-breeding only". Marskell 22:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Just read a paper on wolf coyote hybrids in canada that says wolves, dogs, and coyotes all prodcue fertile offspring with each other (coy-dogs, coy-wolves and wolf-dogs) so that answers that concern, but I agree with the discussion below that fertility itself isn't the sole criterion for species distinction.--Paddling bear (talk) 23:12, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

The research that I have read indicates that all Red Wolves are in fact hybrids. This research is not final (as far as I know) but Red Wolves are fertile. The fact that they are fertile, however, is not dispositive of the species question. There are many examples of inter-species hybrids that are fertile. Wolves and Jackals reportedly produce fertile offspring as well as dogs and wolves producing fertile offspring. The real question is if they are a hybrid of two species rather than a n independant species themselves, do they warrant protection. Right now our conservation regulatory structure is not set up to protect a hybird no matter how rare. I will find the cite for the research--Counsel 22:21, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

"Not dispositive of the species question"--no indeed, and the assumption that non-inter-breeding indicates a distinct species (or that inter-breeding does) is a mistaken one. This is worth emphasizing with this genus particluarly. Marskell 22:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I added a reference to genetic research on diversity of canis by Roy, but can't get it to link. Someone please help.

The info that's referenced as "more recent" and cited as evidence that the red wolf is a coyote/gray wolf hybrid is over twelve years old. The ability to interbreed with gray wolves and coyotes does not reasonably establish an argument that it's a hybrid between the species. Coyotes and Gray wolves can produce fertile offspring but nobody argues that they are two distinct (but closely related species). Why then is it surprising that red wolves and coyotes and red wolves and gray wolves can produce fertile offspring? I read an article that I have to find where they found fossil evidence that indicates that red wolves have been around in the southeastern USA for thousands of years as a distinct species. Also, the kind of hybridization between gray wolves and coyotes that would be required to produce red wolves is pretty fantastical based on their respective behaviours. --TaeKwonTimmy 08:51, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Twelve years old is reasonably recent in light of the wikipedia publishing policy. Also this is not computing. In Biology twelve years is a recent change in theory. The fossil evidence you quote falls back again to morphological evidence, which has not been at the forefront of species categorization for a number of years now.

Yet the cross breeding potential that is mentioned is poor evidence. Many species can cross breed, but that doesn't prove they aren't distinct species or even subspecies. As I said earlier, all wolves and coyotes can interbreed and produce fertile offspring but that doesn't mean wolves and coyotes are the same species. --TaeKwonTimmy 20:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Just like gulls and waterfowl, members of the genus Canis can interbreed very freely. The only practical criterion for species in this group which retains the interbreeding concept at all is whether the level of interbreeding is low enough to keep the group distinct. By the pure rule that "if the hybrids are fertile, they're all one species", there would be only one Canis species, and waterbird and gamebird taxonomy would be destroyed (where inter-generic hybrids are not particularly rare, and even inter-familial hybrids (yikes!) are possible) . 24.167.74.103 02:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Kep in mind that the definiton of species includes those animals that don't normally breed, but SOME can. The definition includes those that don't breed not only because they can't, or produce infertile offspring, but those that don't because of behavior, different habitats, etc. In the real world, it can get messy. Tigers and lions have fertile offspring, but in wild don't interbreed. Polar bears and brown bears can interbreed, and are fertile, in fact recent work suggests polar bears split and descended from brown bears, so we call them separate species. Zoos often find out by accident which species can interbreed, but that is nor a normal situation. Note on red wolf being just a hybrid, this is highly contentios still, even the wolf experts are still undecided and arguing the points. Just cause a new paper comes out doesn't mean it's accepted and correct.--Paddling bear 18:01, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Again these are hardly "new" papers. In some cases the refutations of species status are decades old. Just because it goes against what you'd like to believe doesn't mean it's not accepted. Red wolf status as a seperate species has much more to do with politics than science. Also interbreeding is not the main indicator of the papers cited. The papers cite Genetic evidence. Interbreeding has not been the standard for species for some time. Genetics has taken the place of old, yes i mean OLD, standards of breeding and morphology. Genetically Red Wolves are not a seperate species. Get current and quit talking about all this "new" research that is largely over a decade old. Perhaps we should base all computing articles on twenty and thirty year old science as well. 74.188.22.225 20:51, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

American Bison and domestic cattle can also interbreed and produce fertile offspring. That does not make them the same species. Red wolves and coyotes can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. In the wild these are almost exclusively male wolf/female coyote crosses since female wolves are not inclinded to breed with coyotes. At the Alligator River Preserve this has been managed by producing buffer zones around the red wolf experimental population area. In the interior area coyotes are captured and permanently removed. In the surrounding buffer zone coyotes are captured and sterilized then returned. As the control area for the red wolf population has expanded the buffer zones have expanded as well.

Genetic studies continue to be ongoing. When both coyote and gray wolf markers were found in the earliest studies the theory proposed was one of hybridization. Subsequent studies have suggested the red wolf genome is older rather than younger than that of the other two species - suggesting the red wolf is the origin of the other two rather than a hybrid. Opinions do vary, and both the discussion and research are ongoing, but the most widely held view is of the red wolf as the originating species.CharmsDad (talk) 19:18, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Assimilation Sex Dominance

I firmly believe that the redwolf is in fact simply a variation of wolves and coyotes. I think that lesser male wolves are responcible for breeding with female coyotes, leaving out the “submale” coyote. This would create the “redwolf.” Would it be safe to say that female coyotes prefer wolves? So in a sense, male coyotes compete directly with lesser male wolves. However in the “red wolf/coyote” breed, it would probably be a male coyote’s advantage to mate with a female redwolf. (~PassiveBluffing~)

Your beliefs are not what we put into the article. We document the relative (in this case) scientific literature on what this species is. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:14, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like your trying to disavow my accuracy or pretending to not to acknowledged my reasoning. Seems a tad nit close-minded and you did not even care to comment of my original inquiry, probably because it has validation and has caused you discomfort. What “scientist” is to say there determination is correct? Science always changes due to new perspective/determinations. But go ahead and steal my thoughts if that’s what you intend to do. ~PassiveBluffing~

No, what I'm saying is that Wikipedia is not a place for your own views. We maintain a neutral point of view and do not conduct original research. Wikipedia is a place to report on the information and research that exists. If you can show published works that include your theories (but not published works of your own), then you can put that information into the articles. I'm not saying you don't have a valid point. You may. But it is not what Wikipedia is about. Please read the links I've provided in this edit, as well as the links I've provided on your talk page so that you can better understand how to contribute in a productive manner. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:58, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Hey, can't we all just get along!? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.139.86 (talk • contribs)

Remember: Wikipedia is not a place to publish original research, well reasoned or otherwise. This is from the Wikipedia editing article "This is also not the place for "original research"—that is, new theories, etc., that haven't been supported by peer review. For more details about what Wikipedia should include, see What Wikipedia is not, Criteria for inclusion of biographies and What's in, what's out (the latter is an early guideline of Wikipedia)."

These are hardly "new theories". The genetic comparison of red wolves to grey wolves and coyotes, as well as the debate of the legitimacy of red wolf species classification, goes back for several years. There are multiple papers detailing the lack of mitochondrial genetic differentiation, all peer-reveiwed and published. What does not belong on Wikipedia is political positioning to craft science into a justification of a political action. IE: The Red wolf status on endangered lists. I've twice seen references to legitimate research in this article removed, for no apparent reason than that they disrupted the presentation of the red wolf as a distinct species.

The presentation of the red wolf as a distinct species is not supported scientifically. At best we are unsure, as there is no genetic support for this classification.

I've added about half a dozen references, some from both sides of, and am trying to get them to link into the article itself. Someone please help with this. I've also removed a large amount of very emotionally biased wording, replacing it with references to peer reviewed research.

Out of the blue - Doesn't it seem unlikely that the Red Wolf could be genetically identical to both the Gray Wolf and the Coyote? The source for this statement doesn't really stand muster either. There must be a more authoritative article than a 40 year old work on the art of Audubon. V —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.159.138 (talk) 04:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Since the works cited aren't 40 years old, I don't see your point. And it doesn't seem unlikely at all. Does it seem unlikely that africans and caucasians are genetically the same species? I'd say not. They are not genetically identical any more than a borher and sister are, they are genetically the same species.

The bibliography page on the Red Wolf Recovery Program's web page has a rather extensive list of legitimate peer reviewed scientific publications. It is located at http://www.fws.gov/redwolf/biblio.html. The Red Wolf is not identical to either the Gray Wolf or the Coyote, but it is closely related to both. As to the comment about humans and their relationship, I see that as rather badly expressed and in poor taste. In the first place, people from Africa are not all of the same race, religion, culture or ethnic background. Secondly, humans are far more closely related to each other and have far less genetic variation between them than do most other species. The earliest genetic testing that confirmed the close relationship between Red Wolves and the other two species was published in the mid 90s. The original authors proposed this supported the theory that they were hybrids. Genetic testing has progressed substantially over the last decade and more recently published studies indicate both mitochondrial and nuclear genetic testing suggests the Red Wolf genome appears older than that of either of the other two species. This seems to support the theory that the Red Wolf is the origin of both other species rather than a hybrid of the two. Though generally rare, there are hybrids of both Red Wolves and Gray Wolves with Coyotes in the wild. These tend to be exclusively from a cross involving a male wolf and female coyote. Observations indicate female wolves (both Red and Gray) do not tend to be receptive to coyotes. When the female coyotes are not in heat the male wolves are generally not tolerant of their presence and, along with other pack members, will frequently actively pursue and kill them.CharmsDad (talk) 06:41, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Capitalization

Is it "Red Wolf" or "red wolf"? This article uses the former, but (for instance) the Red Wolf Coalition seems to prefer the latter. Most Wikipedia articles seem to use the latter as well. If no one objects, I'm going to change this; I can't think of a good reason why "Red Wolf" should be capitalized but other animals' names shouldn't. Switchercat ^talk_contribs 17:25, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I object to this. I see no reason to change the name to lower case, and I have no idea where you got this idea. I have yet to see any animals in Wikipedia which have lower case names, and if there are, I think you should use your editing capabilities and capitalize them. Vortex 22:03, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

All right; here are some examples.

• Leopard
• Sea anemone
• Black toad
• Jaguar
• Human
• Wolverine
• Quagga

As for "where I got the idea," I was looking around at the external links for this website. As I stated before, the Red Wolf Coalition does not capitalize the name of the species; the red wolf entry on the ARKive doesn't, either. (Admittedly, in the Wikipedia entry regarding naming conventions of fauna, it is written that "[m]ammals are mostly capitalized." However, I take mostly to mean not required.) It seemed to me that it would make sense for Wikipedia to follow along these lines as well.

That is my reasoning. But, if you dislike jumping onto the stylistic bandwagon that other websites have, I'll withhold my urge to lowercase everything!

*trying to be nice* :P Switchercat ^talk_contribs 22:59, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

See WP:BIRD for the rationale to using uppercase for species' common names. - UtherSRG (talk) 23:12, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

That applies only to birds, however. Switchercat ^talk_contribs 23:19, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, WP:BIRD only applies to bird; I didn't say that that project can define how this article is named. However, the logic of the capitalization scheme layed out in WP:BIRD is sound. I've had WP:PRIM, WP:CEPH, and WP:MaM all point there for the rationale for why those projects are using the same capitalization scheme. - UtherSRG (talk) 04:36, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I believe we should look at the other wolf sub-species on Wiki. They capitalize their names as well. The Red Wolf should be no different. I'm starting to think it would be more correct to be in lower case though, as most books and sites seem to keep their names lower case, or at least the animal in particular, such as Red wolf, or Marine otter. Wikipedia seems to have many capitalization problems. XD Hmmm... Quite a dilemma. Vortex 00:22, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

The developing convention is caps for mammals, fish and invertebrates are often in lower case.--Peta 00:26, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the assesment that the name "Red Wolf" should be de-capitalized (is that a real word??) But then again, I am not an authority on the matter so I guess my opinion doesn't count. Solon89 18:05, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Red Wolf Entirely as Gray Wolf/Coyote Hybrid, Not Separate Species?

I read an article recently (sorry can't cite) that there really is no such thing as a red wolf species -- genetic testing has determined that the entire group of animals was founded by Gray Wolf male/Coyote female hybridization.

This was a popular news article though -- could have been confused.

74.188.22.225 20:48, 28 September 2007 (UTC) read the citations listed at the end of the article. They are all scientific papers.

Researchers at UCLA, University of Idaho, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and others were, and have continued to be, heavily involved in the Red Wolf Recovery Program in the Alligator River Preserve here in North Carolina. Working on other canine projects I have had a small number of occasions to speak with the program director for this project and various associated researchers and all are primarily interested in finding historical and evolutionary fact rather than promoting a political agenda with no significant conservation significance. Early genetic analysis did find markers in the red wolf that indicate a historical relationship with both coyotes and gray wolves. This created the very controversy you indicate. More recent studies (see citations in main article) have tended to support the theory that the red wolf is the originating species for both of the other species rather than a hybrid of the two which is now the generally held view. There are still those on both sides of this controversy and research is ongoing.CharmsDad (talk) 18:07, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Two photos are better than one

There seem to be 2 Red Wolf photos associated with this article: the current slightly fuzzy one, in the taxobox, of a running wolf, and the one I added fairly recently, of a captive specimen which shows better detail. Someone replaced the running wolf with the captive wolf in the taxobox, bringing us back down to a single photo. Now the taxobox photo has been exchanged for that of the running wolf, and we still only have one picture. Please, if there is an argument about which one is better for the taxobox, just switch them around. It's nice to have two distinctly different pictures. Tim Ross·^talk 15:50, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Eastern Canadian Wolf

I was fortunate enough to have attended a seminar on the Eastern Canadian Wolf while stationed at Queen's University Biological Station, and so I've started (slowly) a page on the Eastern Canadian Wolf. I also added in the page that there is also genetic evidence to support the descent from the Red Wolf based on DNA samples from existing Canadian wolves in Algonquin Park and museum samples of Red Wolves obtained from several southern US states. Hearing it from the horse's mouth makes it hard to have it in writing! Just to let you guys know, and great work so far on this page. --Waterspyder 21:11, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

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WHUT?

Just because an animal was extinct doesn't mean they were not in captivity! They could have been extinct from the wild not from captivity . They must have mated some red wolfs and let them in the wild and they made it happen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.250.9.251 (talk • contribs)

I'm confused:

Three subspecies of Red Wolf are recognised. Canis rufus floridanus has been extinct since 1930. Canis rufus rufus was declared extinct by 1970. And finally, Canis rufus gregoryi, now focused on in wolf recovery plans, became extinct in the wild by 1980.

There are around 270 remaining Red Wolves; about 100 in the wild in North Carolina and 170 in captivity.

Does this mean that there are other red wolves still in the wild who are not members of the three subspecies? RickK 01:52, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I was going to post the same complaint, Rick. Then I re-read it and figured out what the entry was trying to say - with some difficulty, I might add. No, it doesn't mean that, it means that Canis rufus gregoryi is the only surviving subspecies. But it's very badly written - I'll attend to it shortly. (But first, I'll look them up again and do some double-checking.) Tannin 02:00, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Tannin. If I'd understood it, I would have changed it myself.  :) RickK 02:02, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one ever fixed that. I just did now, 2 years later. Redwolf24 9 July 2005 12:22 (UTC)

---

Below text was moved here from "Texas red wolf", which I (Infrogmation) turned into a redirect to this article:

"Texas redwolves are extinct because farmers thought they were eating their cattle so the killed them almost to the pointof extincttion. in 1970 they started to breed them but it did not work."

     By: Desirae

Italic text'''

Capitalization

Is it "Red Wolf" or "red wolf"? This article uses the former, but (for instance) the Red Wolf Coalition seems to prefer the latter. Most Wikipedia articles seem to use the latter as well. If no one objects, I'm going to change this; I can't think of a good reason why "Red Wolf" should be capitalized but other animals' names shouldn't. Switchercat ^talk_contribs 17:25, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I object to this. I see no reason to change the name to lower case, and I have no idea where you got this idea. I have yet to see any animals in Wikipedia which have lower case names, and if there are, I think you should use your editing capabilities and capitalize them. Vortex 22:03, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

All right; here are some examples.

• Leopard
• Sea anemone
• Black toad
• Jaguar
• Human
• Wolverine
• Quagga

As for "where I got the idea," I was looking around at the external links for this website. As I stated before, the Red Wolf Coalition does not capitalize the name of the species; the red wolf entry on the ARKive doesn't, either. (Admittedly, in the Wikipedia entry regarding naming conventions of fauna, it is written that "[m]ammals are mostly capitalized." However, I take mostly to mean not required.) It seemed to me that it would make sense for Wikipedia to follow along these lines as well.

That is my reasoning. But, if you dislike jumping onto the stylistic bandwagon that other websites have, I'll withhold my urge to lowercase everything!

*trying to be nice* :P Switchercat ^talk_contribs 22:59, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

See WP:BIRD for the rationale to using uppercase for species' common names. - UtherSRG (talk) 23:12, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

That applies only to birds, however. Switchercat ^talk_contribs 23:19, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, WP:BIRD only applies to bird; I didn't say that that project can define how this article is named. However, the logic of the capitalization scheme layed out in WP:BIRD is sound. I've had WP:PRIM, WP:CEPH, and WP:MaM all point there for the rationale for why those projects are using the same capitalization scheme. - UtherSRG (talk) 04:36, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I believe we should look at the other wolf sub-species on Wiki. They capitalize their names as well. The Red Wolf should be no different. I'm starting to think it would be more correct to be in lower case though, as most books and sites seem to keep their names lower case, or at least the animal in particular, such as Red wolf, or Marine otter. Wikipedia seems to have many capitalization problems. XD Hmmm... Quite a dilemma. Vortex 00:22, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

The developing convention is caps for mammals, fish and invertebrates are often in lower case.--Peta 00:26, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the assesment that the name "Red Wolf" should be de-capitalized (is that a real word??) But then again, I am not an authority on the matter so I guess my opinion doesn't count. Solon89 18:05, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Two photos are better than one

There seem to be 2 Red Wolf photos associated with this article: the current slightly fuzzy one, in the taxobox, of a running wolf, and the one I added fairly recently, of a captive specimen which shows better detail. Someone replaced the running wolf with the captive wolf in the taxobox, bringing us back down to a single photo. Now the taxobox photo has been exchanged for that of the running wolf, and we still only have one picture. Please, if there is an argument about which one is better for the taxobox, just switch them around. It's nice to have two distinctly different pictures. Tim Ross·^talk 15:50, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Red Wolf Entirely as Gray Wolf/Coyote Hybrid, Not Separate Species?

I read an article recently (sorry can't cite) that there really is no such thing as a red wolf species -- genetic testing has determined that the entire group of animals was founded by Gray Wolf male/Coyote female hybridization.

This was a popular news article though -- could have been confused.

74.188.22.225 20:48, 28 September 2007 (UTC) read the citations listed at the end of the article. They are all scientific papers.

Researchers at UCLA, University of Idaho, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and others were, and have continued to be, heavily involved in the Red Wolf Recovery Program in the Alligator River Preserve here in North Carolina. Working on other canine projects I have had a small number of occasions to speak with the program director for this project and various associated researchers and all are primarily interested in finding historical and evolutionary fact rather than promoting a political agenda with no significant conservation significance. Early genetic analysis did find markers in the red wolf that indicate a historical relationship with both coyotes and gray wolves. This created the very controversy you indicate. More recent studies (see citations in main article) have tended to support the theory that the red wolf is the originating species for both of the other species rather than a hybrid of the two which is now the generally held view. There are still those on both sides of this controversy and research is ongoing.CharmsDad (talk) 18:07, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Additions

The article consisted of the intro and a long section on taxonomy with nothing about habits, social structure or even physical appearance. I have added two sections which I think fills it out nicely. Marskell 17:20, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: Adding External Links - I added a link to my site and it was deleted. My website is about wolves and has several pages and sections dedicated to the red wolf. Just trying to figure out why it was removed and what changes I need to make to have it listed here. I realize Wikipedia is not a link exchange or advertising pool, but my site is about wolves and is a valued resource in regards to the red wolf. Iamloup (talk) 22:45, 20 February 2009 (UTC) iamloup

Are you sure you added it here? I don't see it in your contributions [2].—Sandahl (talk) 22:49, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I thought I did, I got a message that said it was removed and if I had questions to visit the talk page. I tried to post it again under my user name - I just got an account so maybe that makes the difference? Not sure. Thanks. Iamloup (talk) 22:54, 20 February 2009 (UTC)iamloup

You might not have been logged in when you added it. Check just under login where it says keep me logged in for 30 days and it will prevent you from inadvertently revealing your IP .—Sandahl (talk) 23:04, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. It is there now - so I guess it worked. I am a noob here but trying to figure it all out. Iamloup (talk) 23:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)Iamloup

Nature and origin of this animal

With regard to this:

"... which once roamed throughout the Southeastern United States and is a glacial period survivor of the Late Pleistocene epoch"

MSW3, as I read it, seems to state that this is not the current explanation for this wolf with noticeably coyotesque genetic material and morphology. The new consensus seems to me to be that these facts are best explained by understanding the Red Wolf to be a coywolf, albeit one that tends to breed like a subspecies. They don't seem sure when this happened, but imply it could be a result of changes caused by humans in North America, and as such would or could be much younger than that epoch (which is when C. latrans and C. lupis diverged explaining why that epoch was assumed to have been when the divergence happened.

There are also several other places in the article where the older take on the nature and origin of the Red Wolf needs updating in this respect. Chrisrus (talk) 20:33, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd need more time to read up, because the fossil and genetic don't agree and fossil references I've seen are old. I can't combine the book I have that suggests red wolves evolved from a wolf-coyote while an earlier wolf-type, which suggests a common ancestor to wolves being a few million years ago (I'd have to check that) verse the genetics that suggest much closer relation. I couldn't tell if that meant the fossils weren't understood correctly or whether the post-European settlements just allowed these two similar animals to hybridize again, swamping the red wolf with grey wolf and coyote genes. Or am I totally misunderstanding this debate?--Paddling bear (talk) 18:44, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Extant Red "Wolves" are all part Coyote

Facts:

1. The decline of Red Wolves in North America was due to three factors: habitat destruction, hunting, and hybridization with Canis latrans (Coyotes). (1. Nowak, R. M. North American Quaternary Canis (Mongr. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, Lawrence,1979). 2. McCarley, H. Southwestern Naturalist 7, 227−235 (1962).
2. These hybrids became more numerous, adjusted well to live on the outskirts of human civilization, and moved eastward. (Citation One, Citation Two, and 3. Young, S. P. The Wolves of North America (Dover, New York, 1944); and 4. Lawrence, B. & Bossert, W. H. Am. Zool. 7, 223−232 (1967).
3. After Red Wolf extinction in the wild, (1967) a program started to re-introduce captive individuals to the wild. As a part of this program, scientists were contracted to design a way to distinguish between pure rufus and rufus/latrans hybrids.
4. The results of these findings was that all captive Red Wolves were hybrids.

But because the average substitution rate of mitochondrial DNA in mammals is much greater than that of nuclear genes6, mtDNA analysis is a more useful way of distinguishing closely related species. We have now analysed mtDNA restriction-enzyme sites and cytochrome b gene sequence variation in captive red wolves and in 77 canids sampled during the capture period. We also used the polymerase chain reaction to amplify and then sequenced mtDNA from red wolf skins collected before substantial hybridization of red wolves with coyotes is thought to have occurred. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that red wolves have either a grey wolf or coyote mtDNA genotype, demonstrating hybridization among these species. Thus, the red wolf is entirely a hybrid form or a distinct taxon that hybridized with coyotes and grey wolves over much of its previous geographical range.

[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v351/n6327/abs/351565a0.html%7C "Mitochondrial DNA analysis implying extensive hybridization of the endangered red wolf Canis rufus" R. K. Wayne Department of Biology, UCLA & S. M. Jenks Department of Physiology, U of C San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA Present address: Department of Psychology, UC Berkeley]

Chrisrus (talk) 02:59, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Nowak's point of view NOT a hybrid

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2386371Chrisrus (talk) 01:50, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

That was 1992. How about something more modern, since our prime reference is from 2005? (And sign your talk edits, please!) - UtherSRG (talk) 01:06, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes,that's true. I'm working on it, feel free to help. I just found and read that and thought I'd leave it here, might be referred to as at least the historical arguement, later. Hey, what do you think about what I said in the secion just above?Chrisrus (talk) 01:58, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

There is a 2002 paper by Nowak asserting (again) that they are not hybrids. He's still using morphometrics, which doesn't really answer the genetics debate. I think it's a question of how different is enough to be a subsppecies?--Paddling bear (talk) 21:03, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

There are no known instances of red wolves and gray wolves hybridizing. Ecologically, this is unsupported. Only the eastern wolf, currently classified as Canis lupus lycaon, breeds with both gray wolves and coyotes. The red wolf is known to hybridize only with coyotes. If red wolves and coyotes share a common North American evolutionary history, one that led to a New World lineage of canids that came to look wolflike due to convergent evolution, then that may explain the propensity of red wolves to hybridize with coyotes. (Newly diverged species are more likely to cross with each other.) For an expanded discussion on this, see the Wilson 2000 reference in the main article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tdelene (talk • contribs) 01:40, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Assimilation Sex Dominance

I firmly believe that the redwolf is in fact simply a variation of wolves and coyotes. I think that lesser male wolves are responcible for breeding with female coyotes, leaving out the “submale” coyote. This would create the “redwolf.” Would it be safe to say that female coyotes prefer wolves? So in a sense, male coyotes compete directly with lesser male wolves. However in the “red wolf/coyote” breed, it would probably be a male coyote’s advantage to mate with a female redwolf. (~PassiveBluffing~)

Your beliefs are not what we put into the article. We document the relative (in this case) scientific literature on what this species is. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:14, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like your trying to disavow my accuracy or pretending to not to acknowledged my reasoning. Seems a tad nit close-minded and you did not even care to comment of my original inquiry, probably because it has validation and has caused you discomfort. What “scientist” is to say there determination is correct? Science always changes due to new perspective/determinations. But go ahead and steal my thoughts if that’s what you intend to do. ~PassiveBluffing~

No, what I'm saying is that Wikipedia is not a place for your own views. We maintain a neutral point of view and do not conduct original research. Wikipedia is a place to report on the information and research that exists. If you can show published works that include your theories (but not published works of your own), then you can put that information into the articles. I'm not saying you don't have a valid point. You may. But it is not what Wikipedia is about. Please read the links I've provided in this edit, as well as the links I've provided on your talk page so that you can better understand how to contribute in a productive manner. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:58, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Hey, can't we all just get along!? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.139.86 (talk • contribs)

Remember: Wikipedia is not a place to publish original research, well reasoned or otherwise. This is from the Wikipedia editing article "Thlis is also not the place for "original research"—that is, new theories, etc., that haven't been supported by peer review. For more details about what Wikipedia should include, see What Wikipedia is not, Criteria for inclusion of biographies and What's in, what's out (the latter is an early guideline of Wikipedia)."

These are hardly "new theories". The genetic comparison of red wolves to grey wolves and coyotes, as well as the debate of the legitimacy of red wolf species classification, goes back for several years. There are multiple papers detailing the lack of mitochondrial genetic differentiation, all peer-reveiwed and published. What does not belong on Wikipedia is political positioning to craft science into a justification of a political action. IE: The Red wolf status on endangered lists. I've twice seen references to legitimate research in this article removed, for no apparent reason than that they disrupted the presentation of the red wolf as a distinct species.

The presentation of the red wolf as a distinct species is not supported scientifically. At best we are unsure, as there is no genetic support for this classification.

I've added about half a dozen references, some from both sides of, and am trying to get them to link into the article itself. Someone please help with this. I've also removed a large amount of very emotionally biased wording, replacing it with references to peer reviewed research.

Out of the blue - Doesn't it seem unlikely that the Red Wolf could be genetically identical to both the Gray Wolf and the Coyote? The source for this statement doesn't really stand muster either. There must be a more authoritative article than a 40 year old work on the art of Audubon. V —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.159.138 (talk) 04:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Since the works cited aren't 40 years old, I don't see your point. And it doesn't seem unlikely at all. Does it seem unlikely that africans and caucasians are genetically the same species? I'd say not. They are not genetically identical any more than a borher and sister are, they are genetically the same species.

The bibliography page on the Red Wolf Recovery Program's web page has a rather extensive list of legitimate peer reviewed scientific publications. It is located at http://www.fws.gov/redwolf/biblio.html. The Red Wolf is not identical to either the Gray Wolf or the Coyote, but it is closely related to both. As to the comment about humans and their relationship, I see that as rather badly expressed and in poor taste. In the first place, people from Africa are not all of the same race, religion, culture or ethnic background. Secondly, humans are far more closely related to each other and have far less genetic variation between them than do most other species. The earliest genetic testing that confirmed the close relationship between Red Wolves and the other two species was published in the mid 90s. The original authors proposed this supported the theory that they were hybrids. Genetic testing has progressed substantially over the last decade and more recently published studies indicate both mitochondrial and nuclear genetic testing suggests the Red Wolf genome appears older than that of either of the other two species. This seems to support the theory that the Red Wolf is the origin of both other species rather than a hybrid of the two. Though generally rare, there are hybrids of both Red Wolves and Gray Wolves with Coyotes in the wild. These tend to be exclusively from a cross involving a male wolf and female coyote. Observations indicate female wolves (both Red and Gray) do not tend to be receptive to coyotes. When the female coyotes are not in heat the male wolves are generally not tolerant of their presence and, along with other pack members, will frequently actively pursue and kill them.CharmsDad (talk) 06:41, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

There are no documented cases of gray wolves and modern red wolves either mating or poducing offspring. Both male and female red wolves will mate with coyotes under certain circumstances. It is not a directional hybridization. I believe this is documented by the recovery team and a wildlife geneticist they contract with, but I do not know if it has been written up in scientific publications yet. Tdelene (talk) 01:52, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Red Wolf "Packs"

According to Smoky Mountains National Park "The red wolves are not pack-oriented like the gray wolf. Red wolves give birth to five to seven pups in April, but a few usually die. Parents raise the family together. As the pups mature, the family may remain together and appear to make a small pack."

Is this accurate? The Wiki page doesn't really say but it gives the impression that the young don't typically stay with their parents to form a "pack". You can find my source here. It is the second-to-last section.

Gatorgirl7563 (talk) 22:50, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Anybody there? I asked if Red wolves are more or less pack oriented than gray wolves? If the answer is unknown at this point or debated, telling me that would appease me, too. Gatorgirl7563 (talk) 10:17, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Apparently no one has looked or found a good source that answers this question. I think it would be difficult to answer conclusively, especially since coyotes have been known to 'pack up' in larger family groups in some areas, at some times. Red wolves might be in the middle between coyotes and gray wolves on this too. I doubt if there were enough wolves in Great Smoky National park to be conclusive on behavior but I also don't think it's an important point, really.--Paddling bear (talk) 16:27, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

comment request at wikiproject Tree of Life

See here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#The_Case_of_the_Red_Wolf Chrisrus (talk) 18:27, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

What exactly is the problem here? We have an ambiguous species, the article says as much. Is it the taxobox or something else that needs attention? Petter Bøckman (talk) 21:48, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

For one thing, Paddington bear has a question about the trinomial authority, but more to the point, and perhaps the link at the tree of life link above is the place to answer, does the articles's "Taxonomy" section add up to a justification of a change to the lead stating that the red wolf is a hybrid, or is there reasonable doubt about that given the genetic tests of all extant individuals? You might want to check the references and have a look at some of the discussions above. Chrisrus (talk) 06:52, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

OK, my two øre:

First off, there's no one good solution to the species problem of the red wolf. No form of scientific classification really handle ambiguity well. We will have to accept that we are left with a "best of a bad situation" as the optimum solution. As long as everyone realize that whatever solution is found, it will have flaws, then we should be able to find consensus.

From a phylogenetic POW, the problem with the red wolf is not really that it appears to be a good species ecologically, but that wolf appears to be one too. Phylogenetic nomenclature is based on species neatly splitting in two and the ancestor species then going extinct. This assumption if of course just a model, not real life, and every now and then we run into situations where this assumption very clearly do not hold. There are quite a few instances of paraphyletic species out there, and hybridization of recently diverged species may be more common in mammals than assumed, our own speciation from the chimpanzee being a point in question. We just need to find how to best handle this situation in the taxobox, and make sure the whole mess is explained clearly in the text.

As far as I can see, the red wolf as a hybrid species seems fairly conclusive. Then again, hybrid species are species too, or can at least give rise to species if allowed to evolve. At what point do a species cease to be "just a hybrid" and start becoming a species of it's own? Petter Bøckman (talk) 11:16, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

I saw your edit in the lede re: this issue. Good job--gets the job done without getting bogged down. --Hobbes Goodyear (talk) 12:56, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Classification

I've tried to add a 'synonym' section to the taxonomy box like the black bear has for Eurctos, but it's not working. I tried to paste this "| synonyms = Canis rufus" which was cut from the bear page. Can anyone fix it? Also, it'd be nice to add where the 3 subspp. were from, I'll see if I can find it. Would the trinomial authority still be the same as the old binomial we've got listed? Shouldn't it be the updated person who suggested we lump them? --Paddling bear (talk) 01:01, 3 March 2010 (UTC) I see now why my attempt didn't work! After more thought, I think the species authority does just translate to the new level, now as the subspp. for the red wolf. What happens to the 3 subspecies of red wolf though? Perhaps if we had more of teach of the 3, we'd be able to resolve this taxonomy debate more clearly. However, taxonomists back then were splitters, there were something like 28 subspp. of 'grizzly' bear in the US at one point, some of the type specimens were from the same area but one was older and male and the other younger and female, so later people decided they were not valid. The old literature isn't always correct (I wonder about the NY trapper records, how do we know where they trapped them? Another reference said PA was the northern limit). Lots of curiosities with this animal.Paddling bear (talk) 04:48, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

At the beginning of this article the classification for the red wolf is listed as Canis lupus rufus (gray wolf subspecies). In the rest of the article where I noticed the classification seems to be listed as the more commonly accepted Canis rufus (separate species). While there continues to be some controversy around these animals, the most widely held opinion still seems to be to consider them as a unique and separate species. As such, shouldn't the correct listing for the classification be Canis rufus? CharmsDad (talk) 23:42, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

We follow the listing in MSW3, the canonical listing of mammal species taxonomy and common names. As such, we should amend the article to use C. l. rufus where applicable. - UtherSRG (talk) 02:47, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Why that publication rather than more accepted standards such as Encyclopedia of Mammals (Oxford University's classification system) or the accepted classification published by the Smithsonian?CharmsDad (talk) 04:15, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

More importantly, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Department if Interior) which oversees the recovery project, US Department of Agriculture, American Zoological and Aquarium Association, National Parks Conservation Association, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN - Red Wolf is red listed as critically endangered) and most others all use the Canis rufus classification. The use of a non-standard classification is one more supporting indicator of the unreliability of Wikipedia information.CharmsDad (talk) 18:27, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

According to the IUCN listing for this animal the classification is also listed as Canis rufus and also lists the authority as Audubon & Bachman, 1851 - the same as claimed on this page. (Reference: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/3747/0 ) Interesting that the IUCN classification is the same as that of other accepted authorities but here you use a classification that declares this animal a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. In reality, this Wikipedia article does NOT use the Audubon and Bachman classification (which agrees with the Oxford and Smithsonian systems on this matter). You are using the Wilson and Reeder system which is not even remotely as accepted. Once again, Wikipedia is using someone's personal view rather than that of the general scientific community.CharmsDad (talk) 23:23, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Interesting that, at some point, the classification was corrected to fit the accepted standard without so much as a note about it.CharmsDad (talk) 05:26, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

CharmsDad, we have to have one or at least very few specifically agreed upon authorities to go by when sources disagree on these things or we'll have chaos. On Wikipedia that authority has been Mammal Species of the World. They are the authority that we look to keep up with everything and weigh everything with a panal of experts tasked with defining the term "current taxonomy" when it comes to such things. They have an article with commentary if you will search for Canis lupus there and you will see how they have looked over everyone's evidence and weighed it all and hashed it out and have decided that, at least for the moment, it's "Canis lupus rufus", why, and where to go for more summary of their thinking. They are just doing their job to be aware of all the arguments on all sides and to change quickly as more information comes in. They admit they are not sure, as should this article. It could turn out that it's a species of it's own at some point in the future, but so far, there's to such thing as "canis rufus" until a search for it on this page: http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/ produces a hit. I'll wait a bit to see if it's not agreed yet, but then we're changing this article, starting with the binomial at in the infobox.

Last chance to object; I'm changing to Canus lupus rufus!?!?!?

No objections from me Mariomassone (talk) 22:48, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I've made a start with the infobox, but there's still a lot to do in terms of the text of the article. According to the Canis section of the Mammal Species of the World, where the website has its article with commentary, the editors believe that the balance of evidence show it to be a wolf/coyote hybrid or some such. They sort of apologize for categorizing it as a sub-species but, what else can they do, you know? It'd certainly be pushing the limits of the definition of the word, but the naming system doesn't know what to do with Ligers and whatnot. If anyone feels themself able enough to read and understand the relevant sections of this page http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=14000738, please do so, compare its conclusions with this article, and make the necessary changes to bring it in line with current taxonomy, I'll try to help. Chrisrus (talk) 17:16, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Again, if you are actually looking for consistency and accuracy why not use one of the more widely accepted classification systems? In the infobox you list the source as Audubon & Bachman, 1851, yet it is actually the less accepted Wozencraft point of view (Wilson & Reeder) that lists the Red Wolf as a subspecies. It is also important to note that IUCN protection does not apply to the subspecies level. While there is disagreement within the scientific community, the most widely held position is still to recognize the Red Wolf as a distinct species. A&B Classification: http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/Taxonomicon/TaxonTree.aspx?id=66432 IUCN Classification: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/3747/0 In all honesty, I see this part of the article as promoting a point of view rather than attempting to present an accurate and neutral scientific explanation of the history and controversy regarding these animals, thier history, or the classification dispute.—Preceding unsigned comment added by CharmsDad (talk • contribs)

You are confusing classification system with taxonomic description. rufus was described by Audubon & Bachman in 1851. No matter whether it is listed as a subspecies or a species or a subpopulation, that authority holds true. The references for the taxobox (which is the classification) is still Wozencraft in W&R's MSW3. We chose MSW3 because overall, it is the most authoritative listing of mammal species. Yes, it gets somethings wrong, and where it does, we try to note the discrepancies in the text of the article, while leaving the taxobox consistent with the other related articles. Haven't we said all this before? I feel like I'm repeating myself..... - UtherSRG (talk) 16:13, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I wondered why the page used Canis lupus, and was surprised that MSW3 would put them as hybrids when such tomes are usually conservative and await a consensus before changing the status quo (I use Walker's Mammals of the World). BUT since I agree Wikipedia should use one source for listing, and discuss other sources, I'll let it go. I do think that some of the MSW3 comments might be better incorporated into the page on hybridds or classification. I think it's important that mtDNA study is limited to the few specimens that can be tested. When they captured the last wild red wolves to start the captive breeding program, they had such trouble deciding which were coyote-hybrids that they had to develope a morphological limit, and smaller ones were removed from the program. Right there we find that the earliest captive breeding were hybridized to some degree. Since coyotes were absent from Eastern North America, I look at red wolves as full species with a recent split from an ancestor shared with coyotes. With such a distinct original range, there couldn't be hybridization throughout the red wolve range. --Paddling bear (talk) 23:03, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

MSW3 comments: "Provisionally includes rufus, (recognized by Paradiso, 1968; Paradiso and Nowak, 1972; Atkins and Dillion, 1971; Paradiso and Nowak, 1972; Nowak, 1979, 1992, 2002) although this problematic group (rufus, floridanus, gregoryi) should probably be best listed as incertae sedis. The widely used name C. niger is invalid (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1957a). The validity of rufus as a full species was questioned by Clutton-Brock et al. (1976), and Lawrence and Bossert (1967, 1975), due to the existence of natural hybrids with lupus and latrans. Natural hybridization may be a consequence of habitat disruption by man (Paradiso and Nowak, 1972, 2002). All specimens examined by Wayne and Jenks (1991) had either a lupus or latrans mtDNA genotype and there appears to be a growing consensus that all historical specimens are a product of hybridization (Nowak, 2002; Reich et al., 1999; Roy et al., 1994, 1996; Wayne et al., 1992, 1998). Hybridization between wolf and coyote has long been recognized (Nowak, 2002). Two recent studies make the strongest case for separation. Wilson et al. (2000) argued for separation of the Eastern Canadian Wolf (as Canis lycaon) and the Red Wolf (as Canis rufus) as separate species based on mtDNA, but see Nowak (2002) who could not find support for this in a morphometric study. Nowak (2002) in an extensive analysis of tooth morphology concluded that there was a distinct population intermediate between traditionally recognized wolves and coyotes, which warranted full species recognition (C. rufus). The red wolf is here considered a hybrid after Wayne and Jenks (1991), Wayne (1992, 1995), and Wayne et al. (1992). Although hybrids are not normally recognized as subspecies, I have chosen as a compromise to retain rufus because of its uncertain status. Also see Roy et al. (1994, 1996), Vilá et al. (1999), and Nowak (2002) who provided an excellent review of the situation." --Paddling bear (talk) 01:01, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

You don't understand what a taxonomic synonym is. Canis rufus and Canis lupus rufus aren't synonyms, they are more closely related than synonym status. If, for example, Canis lupus utherus were at one point considered a distinct taxon from C. l. rufus, but it was then determined that it is really a subpopulation, then C. l. utherus would be a synonym for C. l. rufus. The quotation from MSW3 says nothing about synonyms. I suggest you look at other MSW3 entries to see what a synonym looks like. (And you don't have to quote MSW3 to me. I own my own copy of it and can read it just fine online.) - UtherSRG (talk) 01:14, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Now now, take it easy you two. The quote is useful here because we have to agree what it means and how to "de-technicalize" that exact section where it refers to red wolves and explains where things stand at the moment in current thinking on this matter and get it all into the article in the appropriate wording. MSW3 are just explaining what the evidence shows at the moment of writing. The problem may have something to do with the amount some good people have invested in their being a species, or at least a subspecies, not just some large coywolves. We have to be careful, we don't want to do any harm, but that's not our job to worry about that too much, we just tell the facts and let the chips fall where they may. Anyway, if PaddingtonBear or I or anyone else doesn't understand this term or that term you should straighten us out, that's good, but I appreciate his quoting that text there. Uther; I think you understand this technical talk better than most, better than me. I think I know what it's saying, but I need to hear it from you. In layman's terms, what is that section saying about Red Wolves? I don't want to write this alone based on just what little old me thinks it means. Chrisrus (talk) 07:39, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I believed Paddling bear was posting that because of his addition (twice), and my subsequent removal (twice), of C. rufus as a synonym in the taxobox. If not, I apologize and remove my grumbling attitude.

::::Chrisrus writes as if UtherSRG and I were in some kind of feud, when I am not. You were removing my attempt to add a synonym WHILE I was adding it, so I didn't know it was working, nor that someone was removing it on purpose. As I wrote, I saw the black bear page, and thought 'old' names like Euarctos was similar to an 'old' name of C. rufus. Uther may know more about taxonomy than I do, so I'm fine with his decision. I was trying to make it easier for people who went to the page and were expecting C. rufus to see that it was the same animal.

Uther, I'll admit that I don't understand your example. Your example of a synonym shows one distinct taxon being moved to a subpopulation of another, how is that different from C. rufus being a distinct taxon but being moved to a sub of C. lupus? Either way, I'm not arguing over it. The quotation from MSW3 had nothing to do with this 'arguement' that I didn't know was happening. I noticed most of the edits were years old, and one mentioned that more details were needed to clear up the debate over C. rufus vs. C. l. rufus. I thought posting it here would help people add parts as they could.because I know I don't have time to really work this over. I do think that genetics is causing a lot of debate and rethinking over taxonomy when the genetics don't fit the older morphometrics or other methods used to classify animals. Policy doesn't change fast either. Genetics can tell us things are MORE related than others, but there is not code that says 'species'. Paleontology finds evidence that red wolves were here before grey wolves crossed from Asia, so we need a theory that matches all evidence. Perhaps what the fossil evidence shows isn't clearly understood. I've seen a paper that estimates how long ago American black bears split from Asiatic black bears, which fits the fossils and the known opening of the Bering Strait pretty well. I don't know the wolf literature that well, but from reading the links, it's not that clear cut. We don't have many (or any) samples of pure red wolves, even the 14 they used to start the captive breeding project might have been hybrids of some level. I want this page to be clear about the debate so that it doesn't have to be edited every time a new paper comes out with a new viewpoint. Nature is a continuum while humans are trying to put distinct labels on things. All species originally start out as a population only slightly different than the parent group, something interupts the frequency of interbreeding and time builds up diverging genes until even if they could breed (like lions and tigres) they don't, in the wild. I agree with what Uther writes below, MSW3 is showing that the evidence is equivacal, and more data and analysis will be needed to clear it up. mt-DNA only shows the direct mother's line and y-chromosomes only show the direct father's line, we don't know what happend to the father's mother or the mother's father, etc. Are the wolf genes not from their common ancestor? I don't understand what humans have to do with the hybridization of wolves and coyotes. From the fossil evidence, I assumed the suspected hybridization of eastern wolves and coyotes happend a LONG time ago (fossils suggest coyotes were in the E. North America 10,000 years ago, but not in historic times). I could be wrong on the time that the geneticists were hypothesizing since I didn't read all the scientific literatuer, just some of the links. I surely didn't mean to start any arguement. I just know that there is a lot of room for debate on what the genetics mean, especially when the data is corrupted (as our source for red wolves are), that is why so many publications still debate it. If it was clear, it'd be over and we'd just site the final publication. I agree with Uther's problem with pigeonholing exactly. I don't think we are that far off.Paddling bear (talk) 04:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

What I believe MSW3 states is that there is no strong evidence for any ranking of rufus: there's evidence to make it a species, a subspecies, or a hybrid. None of the options have any greater weight. Part of the problem is that there is a broad range of species concepts. Part of the problem is that all known samples of rufus mtDNA matches either lupus or latrans mtDNA as well. (mtDNA is passed from mother to child nearly intact, so the mtDNA shows that females of both latrans and lupus mated with males of the other species and that the offspring all formed a single population.) Part of the problem is that human habitation and killing has made resolution of the issue very difficult.

The species problem: One of the most simple species concepts are two populations of distinct organisms that can not interbreed to continue either of the populations. C. lupus is a species and C. latrans is a species. They can interbreed, but the results do no produce viable lupus nor viable latrans. What results is a hybrid: possibly rufus. (Think horse + donkey = mule.)

The subspecies problem: rufus can be shown (but is refuted) to be morphologically distinct from lupus, perhaps on the level of a species in distinction. The refutation says, "nah, it's not that much different".

The hybrid problem: While mules can not interbreed to make more mules, rufus interbreeds to make more rufus. rufus acts like a species, but may have been originally formed from a hybrid population, and has genetics and morphology somewhere in the species or subspecies range.

The author's conclusion was to take the middle of the road approach: there's too much similarity to call it a species, and too much stability to call it a hybrid, so for now we'll call it a subspecies until we can call it something else.

My take on it is that species/subspecies/hybrid definitions are too pigeonholing to cover ever existing population, and rufus is one of the biggest showing points for the issue. Indeed, the species concept was initially created and refined over many years before we had a good grasp of how DNA and gene transference works! Would rufus have come about if humans had never come to North America? We'll never know. Maybe yes, maybe no. Does rufus have a distinctive morphology? Maybe. How distinctive? Dunno. Does rufus have a distinctive genome? Not entirely: all rufus individuals can potentially be traced back to a lupus or latrans ancestor via its mtDNA. Given what choices we have (species, subspecies, or hybrid), I actually think subspecies is the worst answer. But my opinion is that of a layman. I think the best answer is to have some greater gradiation of terminology: we should abandon the simple terms "species" and "hybrid" and instead use terms that describe what kind of species or hybrid definition the population is. But to do so goes against some 300+ years of taxonomy! - UtherSRG (talk) 08:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh yeah - one last thing: If it's a species, then rufus is listed as C. rufus. If it is a subspecies, then it is still the same population (named rufus), but it is listed as C. l. rufus. I believe animal hybrids are not given toxonomic nomenclature, even though plant hybrids are. - UtherSRG (talk) 08:47, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed hybrids for mammals are listed like "Ursus maritimus x U. horribilus" since they are usually individuals, unlike plants that hybridize more often, if it's habitual someone redefines the species (like they are working on now). But your not saying an individual hybrid, so it's either determined to be a subspp. of grey wolf as C. l. rufus, or it's determined to be something else. Paddling bear (talk) 04:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Geez, I love ambiguity! What a challange this article is! We do this job right and we'll have really done something awesome. Should we check another source before proceding? Which one(s)? (not too many, something newer....)

We can't do much better than we have: follow the respected published works, and describe the controversy. When the controversy is settled, we change to follow the settlement and perhaps keep the description of the previous controversy. - UtherSRG (talk) 08:47, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed, I was trying to help, not argue.--Paddling bear (talk) 04:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

There is still no scientific consensus about the taxonomic status of the red wolf(s). MSW3 is just one source, and not what all scientists believe. As stated here before, you cannot just change Canis rufus into Canis lupus rufus. Especially not when you use MSW3 as the source. The eastern population of the red wolf (rufus) is now extinct as is the most western population (floridanus). As far as I known, the surviving captive red wolves were from the gregoryi-population (middle population) and these are now reintroduced into the former range of floridanus. Thus if you want to change the name of this article, you should probably change it in Canis lupus gregoryi. Only if you consider floridanus and gregoryi as synonyms of rufus, you can change Canis rufus into Canis lupus rufus (as rufus is the oldest name). But than you cannot use MSW3 as a source in my opinion as that source does recognize all three. I think it is easier (in my humble opinion) to change the text about the scientific name as following (until there is a clear genetic answer and consensus): The red wolf (Canis rufus, Canis lupus gregoryi or Canis lupus rufus[1])is a North American canid which once roamed throughout the Southeastern United States. Peter Maas\^talk 14:03, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Subspecies of red wolf

Does anyone know a citation for the 3 subspecies? I've left it as it was, reather than adding it with the taxonomy, because the debate doesnt' seem to be at that level. Since 2 are extinct, I don't know if the 3 will be lumped under C. lupus rufus or if they'll all be equal subspp. of C. lupus. Does any of the pubs you guys have read even touch on that?--Paddling bear (talk) 05:36, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

MSW3 says "...(rufus, floridanus, gregoryi) should probably be best listed as incertae sedis..." That's all out the window now, I suppose, if they're coywolves. You'd figure they'd vary alot, I suppose, some more wolfish and other more coyotesque, so maybe it was a mistake to identify them as subspecies. Chrisrus (talk) 06:17, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

There was a paper I read some years ago identifying the subspecies and discussing the concerns this brought to the Red Wolf Recovery Project. It may take a while to find it.—Preceding unsigned comment added by CharmsDad (talk • contribs)

The original paper dsecribing the three subspecies was by mammalogist (and wolf expert) E.A. Goldman in 1937. I've added the reference in the main article (09/04/2011). The three exhibited a size cline east to west, with the largest being Floridanus. They may have also had an increasing size as they ranged north. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tdelene (talk • contribs) 01:28, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

There are many citations (just google). Examples of citations that mention that the surviving red wolfs are from the gregoryi-population are: Neiffer et al. (1999). Cecal Inversion and Subsequent Colocolic Intussusception in a Red Wolf (Canis rufus gregoryi). Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. 30(1):119-125. Or Sillero-Zubiri, C. (2009). Family Canidae (Dogs). In: Wilson, D.E. & Mittermeier, R.A. eds. (2009). Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Vol. 1. Carnivores. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. And you can also search the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/search.aspx?SearchTerm=Canis+rufus&SearchCat=) for freely available sources on these three subspecies. Peter Maas\^talk 14:20, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Is it really even a "hybrid species"?

I mean it is not 50-50 wolf/coyo. It's 80% coyo. It IS a coyote for all effective purposes. you can't even tell the animals apart. HAve to kill them and dissect the brains and make some judgement off of that initial study on differences there.

If anything, it should be called a gray coyote, not a red wolf. Or just a coyote.  ;-)

The whole breeding program with efforts to prevent coyote interbreeding seems kind of odd too when you realize the animals are indistinguishable in appearance from the outside.

64.134.168.97 (talk) 16:09, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Editted out rebuttal to May 2011 study

I removed a chunk of text that was so out of policy as to be worthless. It attempted to rebutt the cited study published in May 2011 about the genetic relationships of red wolves to coyotes and gray wolves. It had not one cite and read as a though it were one editor's opinion on the study, a clear and utterly unacceptable violation of WP:NOR. I commented it out, and tagged all the problems in it (i.e., every sentence). If it's salvageable, it needs citations aplenty and to actually summarize those citations, not to introduce original thought. oknazevad (talk) 16:51, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

According to California Wolf Center, the red wolf is in a class by itself. Not a subspecies for the gray wolf. I think more research needs to be done before stating as fact. http://www.californiawolfcenter.org/learn/wolf-facts/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.112.25.62 (talk) 17:59, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Hybridization

Is there any data on whether Red Wolf-Grey Wolf/Coyote hybrids are in fact fertile or not? If some info on that could be found, it could shed some more ligh on the problem: If they are fertile, that could mean they're of the same species; if not, they would probably be of the same genus but not the species. --Arny 21:23, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm 99% on this (that they are fertile) but we don't have a definite source, so that would be good until I track down one tomorrow (or next year...). Lupus (wolves) and familiaris (dogs) have fertile hybrids and I don't see why rufus and latrans would not. The whole lot of them can interbreed as far as I know. Indeed, the canines are a bad choice if you want to argue "species" = "intra-breeding only". Marskell 22:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Just read a paper on wolf coyote hybrids in canada that says wolves, dogs, and coyotes all prodcue fertile offspring with each other (coy-dogs, coy-wolves and wolf-dogs) so that answers that concern, but I agree with the discussion below that fertility itself isn't the sole criterion for species distinction.--Paddling bear (talk) 23:12, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

The research that I have read indicates that all Red Wolves are in fact hybrids. This research is not final (as far as I know) but Red Wolves are fertile. The fact that they are fertile, however, is not dispositive of the species question. There are many examples of inter-species hybrids that are fertile. Wolves and Jackals reportedly produce fertile offspring as well as dogs and wolves producing fertile offspring. The real question is if they are a hybrid of two species rather than a n independant species themselves, do they warrant protection. Right now our conservation regulatory structure is not set up to protect a hybird no matter how rare. I will find the cite for the research--Counsel 22:21, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

"Not dispositive of the species question"--no indeed, and the assumption that non-inter-breeding indicates a distinct species (or that inter-breeding does) is a mistaken one. This is worth emphasizing with this genus particluarly. Marskell 22:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I added a reference to genetic research on diversity of canis by Roy, but can't get it to link. Someone please help.

The info that's referenced as "more recent" and cited as evidence that the red wolf is a coyote/gray wolf hybrid is over twelve years old. The ability to interbreed with gray wolves and coyotes does not reasonably establish an argument that it's a hybrid between the species. Coyotes and Gray wolves can produce fertile offspring but nobody argues that they are two distinct (but closely related species). Why then is it surprising that red wolves and coyotes and red wolves and gray wolves can produce fertile offspring? I read an article that I have to find where they found fossil evidence that indicates that red wolves have been around in the southeastern USA for thousands of years as a distinct species. Also, the kind of hybridization between gray wolves and coyotes that would be required to produce red wolves is pretty fantastical based on their respective behaviours. --TaeKwonTimmy 08:51, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Twelve years old is reasonably recent in light of the wikipedia publishing policy. Also this is not computing. In Biology twelve years is a recent change in theory. The fossil evidence you quote falls back again to morphological evidence, which has not been at the forefront of species categorization for a number of years now.

Yet the cross breeding potential that is mentioned is poor evidence. Many species can cross breed, but that doesn't prove they aren't distinct species or even subspecies. As I said earlier, all wolves and coyotes can interbreed and produce fertile offspring but that doesn't mean wolves and coyotes are the same species. --TaeKwonTimmy 20:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Just like gulls and waterfowl, members of the genus Canis can interbreed very freely. The only practical criterion for species in this group which retains the interbreeding concept at all is whether the level of interbreeding is low enough to keep the group distinct. By the pure rule that "if the hybrids are fertile, they're all one species", there would be only one Canis species, and waterbird and gamebird taxonomy would be destroyed (where inter-generic hybrids are not particularly rare, and even inter-familial hybrids (yikes!) are possible) . 24.167.74.103 02:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Kep in mind that the definiton of species includes those animals that don't normally breed, but SOME can. The definition includes those that don't breed not only because they can't, or produce infertile offspring, but those that don't because of behavior, different habitats, etc. In the real world, it can get messy. Tigers and lions have fertile offspring, but in wild don't interbreed. Polar bears and brown bears can interbreed, and are fertile, in fact recent work suggests polar bears split and descended from brown bears, so we call them separate species. Zoos often find out by accident which species can interbreed, but that is nor a normal situation. Note on red wolf being just a hybrid, this is highly contentios still, even the wolf experts are still undecided and arguing the points. Just cause a new paper comes out doesn't mean it's accepted and correct.--Paddling bear 18:01, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Again these are hardly "new" papers. In some cases the refutations of species status are decades old. Just because it goes against what you'd like to believe doesn't mean it's not accepted. Red wolf status as a seperate species has much more to do with politics than science. Also interbreeding is not the main indicator of the papers cited. The papers cite Genetic evidence. Interbreeding has not been the standard for species for some time. Genetics has taken the place of old, yes i mean OLD, standards of breeding and morphology. Genetically Red Wolves are not a seperate species. Get current and quit talking about all this "new" research that is largely over a decade old. Perhaps we should base all computing articles on twenty and thirty year old science as well. 74.188.22.225 20:51, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

American Bison and domestic cattle can also interbreed and produce fertile offspring. That does not make them the same species. Red wolves and coyotes can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. In the wild these are almost exclusively male wolf/female coyote crosses since female wolves are not inclinded to breed with coyotes. At the Alligator River Preserve this has been managed by producing buffer zones around the red wolf experimental population area. In the interior area coyotes are captured and permanently removed. In the surrounding buffer zone coyotes are captured and sterilized then returned. As the control area for the red wolf population has expanded the buffer zones have expanded as well.

Genetic studies continue to be ongoing. When both coyote and gray wolf markers were found in the earliest studies the theory proposed was one of hybridization. Subsequent studies have suggested the red wolf genome is older rather than younger than that of the other two species - suggesting the red wolf is the origin of the other two rather than a hybrid. Opinions do vary, and both the discussion and research are ongoing, but the most widely held view is of the red wolf as the originating species.CharmsDad (talk) 19:18, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

CharmsDad is correct - the definition of species is now rather holistic, I'd say mostly genetic but with serious consideration to behavior, morphology, etc. This is extensively reviewed in Chambers et al - one of three recent USFWS authors with an extensive review in North American Fauna late 2012. Based on their comprehensive and lengthy review of the genetic studies, two adding mitochondrial DNA and Y-chronomose haplotype DNA to the Von Holdt 2011 48,000 SNP study, and behavioral and morphological studies, the updated consensus is that the red wolf is an independent species. I just spoke with Don Smith at the Smithsonian and his next edition of Mammals of North America won't be out until 2016 but he agrees the red wolf is an independent species with likely origin from a North American ancestor to both coyotes and red wolves. This may explain why gray wolves, which originated in Eurasia, don't breed with coyotes, but red wolves with a North American origin, do breed with coyotes. The latter occurs now because the red wolf was so decimated and its social/pack structure so weakened that the desperate remainder started interbreeding with coyotes. Whether the eastern wolf is Canis rufus or Canis lycaon leans towards the latter now (again see Chambers et al) but I think we need to wait a bit longer before we change it from Canis lupus lycaon to Canis lycaon. Meanwhile I have updated the red wolf page to Canis rufus, and the Texas red wolf page to Canis rufus rufus, although Chambers does not think there is enough evidence for the three red wolf subspecies. If you want a PDF of Chambers I have embedded the links in the refs, or go to my talk page and ask me to email you a copy.Schmiebel (talk) 18:44, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

I will have to disagree with many of the edits that have been popping up with the statements that grey wolves and coyotes have never hybridized. There have been cases of hybridizations in the southern states between coyotes and Mexican Grey wolves.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003333

Also, in one "chupacabra" case, analysis conducted by the UC Davis team confirmed that the male animal was a coywolf sired by a Mexican wolf and born out of a female coyote.

http://www.kens5.com/news/in-depth/chasing-el-chupacabra/UC-Davis-team-says-chupacabra-is-likely-coyote-wolf-mix-85788362.html

While not related to the Red wolves in the north, I do want to note that it's POSSIBLE that some of those apparently "distinct" regions in the Red wolves and Eastern wolves are likely wolf/coyote mix regions caused by hundred of years of interbreeding between the grey wolf/Pre-Columbian eastern coyote hybrid populations. Because the population of Eastern wolves and red wolves have been separated from the pure animals for many years, their genetic materials may have evolved into a form that makes them appear more distinct from both the pure coyotes and other subspecies of the grey wolves. I also disagree with the statements that grey wolves did not arrive in the eastern provinces and states until more recently. The Newfoundland and Labrador subspecies have been living in the Atlantic Canada for centuries. In fact, it's possible the Labrador wolf subspecies may represent what's left of the original population of eastern grey wolves before the others hybridized with the coyotes and formed the eastern wolves and red wolves. Nosferatuslayer (talk) 16:03, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Not to mention the Eastern coyote. Chrisrus (talk) 19:31, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Recent change from Canis lupus rufus -> Canis rufus rufus

MSW3, the citation we use for the taxon, http://www.vertebrates.si.edu/msw/mswcfapp/msw/taxon_browser.cfm?msw_id=11374 says it's Canis lupus rufus, not Canis rufus rufus, noting that Canis lupus "...provisionally includes rufus, (recognized by Paradiso, 1968; Paradiso and Nowak, 1972; Atkins and Dillion, 1971; Paradiso and Nowak, 1972; Nowak, 1979, 1992, 2002) although this problematic group (rufus, floridanus, gregoryi) should probably be best listed as incertae sedis."

Despite this, it was recently change to Canis rufus rufus.

Question: Should we change it back?Chrisrus (talk) 04:10, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Is there recent, widely accepted research showing that C. rufus rufus is actually in use or proposed? It may be best to somehow list both (using br codes in the taxobox), especially if the zoological community is split.

Please keep in mind that there already this article about Canis rufus rufus, the Texas Red Wolf. Chrisrus (talk) 11:36, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Regarding the last few comments (and thanks Chrisrus, for posting on my talk page where I have responded, but also here in more detail). Significantly, multiple genetic studies have accumulated since the 2011 SNP study by Von Holdt, beginning with re-analysis of that SNP raw data coupled with a holistic review of wolf behavior, morphology and other non-genetic info (Rutledge et al 2011) then progressing to later articles reporting on studies of Y-chromosome haplotype info (Wilson 2012) and mitochondrial DNA info. All of these genetic studies are part of a very comprehensive review by Chambers et al. Oct. 2012 (Chambers is one of three authors, all USFWS biologists) which concludes that the red wolf is a distinct species. Don Wilson of the Smithsonian, co-author of Mammals of North America (last edition 2009, next edition due in 2016) was a reviewer of the Chambers article, and agrees (personal communication with me of a few days ago) with Chambers' conclusion that a large body of evidence has now concluded that the red wolf is a bona fide species, as is supported by ongoing USFWS efforts to protect it. MSW3 is dated at 2005, i.e. it is outdated and I don't think it is updated until they can reference the latest N Am Mammals edition due in 2016. Chambers' also reviews the genetic and other evidence for red wolf subspecies and concludes there is insufficient evidence to divide it into three subspecies (rufus, florida and gregoryi) so the latter are better referred to as varieties of Canis rufus, rather than subspecies. So the Texas red wolf Canis rufus rufus would more properly be Canis rufus Var. rufus, but nobody is going to find it if we change the page title so I edited the discussion section to explain it but left the title intact. I added today a note at top of the Texas red wolf page so people can easily redirect to the Red wolf Canis rufus page, and added two recent scientific journal references to the Texas red wolf page where before there were no journal articles or books referenced. The other two putative subspecies, now varieties, of Canis rufus (florida and gregoryi) are extinct so they do not need pages, but I think the Texas red wolf page should remain as I hate to interfere with local conservation knowledge and interest. On the Red wolf Canis rufus wiki page, I left the trinomial name for historical reasons. Perhaps this is too confusing and should be deleted but the article text correctly explains things now so I left it. As to the Eastern wolf, Wilson feels that Chambers is correct in that it, too, is a distinct species from gray wolf Canis lupus, but that there is insufficient evidence to synonymize it with the red wolf just yet. I have not changed the Eastern wolf page from Canis lupus lycaon as I think the evidence that it is an independent species is not as broad or clear as the evidence for the red wolf, although I would not object if others wanted to make this change based on Chambers et al and other recent articles.Schmiebel (talk) 20:25, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Just to be clear. Canis rufus now redirects to Red wolf, and Canis rufus rufus redirects to Texas red wolf, the latter a type or variety of red wolf.Schmiebel (talk) 22:26, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Something about this doesn't feel right.

First, this article said they were a distinct Canis species like any other.

Then, it said that all extant individuals had been tested and they were all coywolves; part lupus and part latrans, and so therefore a problem for taxonomy but we understood the situation well as they'd all been tested and the conclusions were in, a hybrid species that bred true like the eastern coyote, which breeds true, or the whole "Canis soupus", if you pardon the term of art borrowed from experts, for the fuzzy areas along the continuum between the Eastern Coyote fading northwest into the pureblood Eastern Wolfves and southwest into real coyotes, which is supposed to be dynamic, in flux, and confusing.

Now, I am happy to hear from you the advance inside information that you have personally heard that the experts in charge of the next edition of MSW plan to call the referent of this article Canis rufus rufus and to have all other subspecies into just that one, no mention of latrans nor lupus nor lycaon nor gregoyi nor floridianus. I'm glad they've got it all sorted now for here on out everyone's going to agree that's the perfect name for this odd type of creature in a system designed before Darwin, even with no provision for hybrid species that breed true.

But let's wait until it's published to change the taxobox and primary lead subject complement and the rest of the articles on Wikipedia, an extensive system which is still MSW3. I want to know how they are going to include the word latrans in the trinomial for the red wolf, for example. Because I don't see how they can. I want to see what they put in the comments next time, about what we might be advised about, if there are any further provisos they want to issue, and which taxa are best incertae sedis and why, and everything else in the next edition. At least as far as the taxobox goes, and our system all through Wikipedia, which will have widespread ramifications for many articles. Say all you want in the body, in the taxonomy section. But let's go with what MSW3 says until the next one is actually published at least in the taxobox and all the other articles. Chrisrus (talk) 03:09, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't understand why you say "let's wait until it's published" when the findings that the red wolf is its own species, Canis rufus, is now well-published in the scientific, peer-reviewed literature. Since the single SNP article by Von Holdt in 2011 made a genetic argument that the red wolf was a coyote-gray wolf hybrid, the articles now cited in the wiki article are now consistent in placing the red wolf as a species distinct from the gray wolf. The main publications (Rutledge et al 2012, Wilson et al 2012, Chambers et al 2012) are in peer-reviewed journals includes studies of SNP (re)analysis, Y-chromosome haplotype analysis and mitochondrial DNA analysis, respectively. The Chambers article is a very comprehensive review by three US Fish and Wildlife biologists, and USFWS recognizes the red wolf as Canis rufus, a single species, leading to the USFWS commitment to enforce the Endangered Species Act and basically to refute the Von Holdt 2011 assertion that the red wolf is a coyote-gray wolf hybrid. These scientific articles and reviews should supercede MSW3 which is a single museums's (albeit our national museum) website, and does not keep up with the broad published literature (check out the MSW website - it "is not continuously updated", the last update was 2005). MSW3 should not be the standard when a key attribute of Wikipedia is to provide up to date information. All that said, I will contact Dr. Wilson again at the Smithsonian and see if they can update MSW3. Will let you know.Schmiebel (talk) 12:55, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Well, you are the expert not me. But before we change it in the taxobox and all over Wikipedia, far and wide, but I'd like to see it published in MSW. Why don't they just update it, now that it's not so much a book as a website? The talk about the endangered species act makes me hesitate, the talk about personal communications you can't show me makes hesitate. May experts are so because they are enthusiasts out to save the animals they love and because, unfortunately, it's not the Endangered Creatures Act for no good reason it has to be a species or die, which turns out to be a pretty malleable concept, species, especially in this genus and continent. Chrisrus (talk) 14:16, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Ha, not an expert but I am do cancer genetics research for a living which sure helps. You raise good points: the concept of what constitutes a species is complicated and often has been determined by expert consensus, although genetics studies of mitochondrial DNA (inherited from mothers), Y-chromosome DNA (half inherited from fathers) and deep SNP sequencing has allowed us to determine species status with more rigor than ever before. I already heard back from Don E. Wilson PhD of the Smithsonian and coauthor of MSW. Here is his response to my request this morning July 8, to update MSW for the red wolf: "Hi Rick, The MSW site is not updated, nor will it be until a new edition is published. It simply reflects the printed version, published in 2005. Don" Therefore I would argue that in this case MSW3 is woefully outdated, as its author admits if you email him (he is remarkably responsive). For the vast majority of species MSW3 is just fine as the taxonomic status of most species is not controversial (although subspecies status for many, if not most subspecies, does remain controversial), but for special cases like the red wolf MSW3 is woefully outdated. Although I go by Schmiebel online, I have shared my personal email on my talk page in order to share the PDFs of the citations I have mentioned.Schmiebel (talk) 15:48, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Just checked the USFWS Species Profile for the red wolf and they list it as Canis rufus too. The url is now in the main article but for ease it is http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=A00F

As you know, taxonomy is an indispensable tool for scientists, who have to give each creature a taxon so they can shelve it and discuss it across languages while focused on the same referent. I assume you know this, but bring this fact up because readers might think that, by deciding to call it a species, these experts have come down on one side or the other as to whether it's a result of coyotes mating with lupus or some creature intermediate between latrans and lupus or an even more complicated situation as to what actually happened to result in this creature existing and its position on the tree of life. It's much more important that the article state clearly what the animal actually is than what scientists have decided to call it, a decision they could have made as the least bad option because taxonomy wasn't designed to accommodate hybrid species that breed true and become a species on their own, see Eastern coyote, there's no way to say Canis lupus/latrans even if that's precisely what it is, because when taxonomy was designed it didn't anticipate such possiblities. Pity the poor reader who simply wants to know what this animal actually is, and is told it's a "species", what is he/she likely to assume? Chrisrus (talk) 17:11, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Without looking up the papers in question I have a question. Has the most recent reviews made a nomenclatural act? That is have they stated that a move from one species to another is to be done. I am a taxonomist (albeit not mammalian) and to accept a change someone must publish the act of doing so. Therefore do you have a citation which clearly changes the nomenclature? If you do then the change is warranted. If you don't then its unwarranted. Cheers, Faendalimas ^talk 21:09, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, Faendalimas, even in the 2011 SNP study suggesting the coyote-gray wolf hybrid origin theory for the red wolf the authors used Canis rufus (Von Holdt Genome Research 2011). So have virtually all subsequent original scientific journal articles (beginning with one that re-analyzed the SNP data and argued that red wolf was not related to gray wolf (Rutledge et al Biol Conservation 2012) then Wilson et al Ecology and Evolution 2012) then a major review paper by Chambers et al (three USFWS biologists coauthored it) in 2012 in North American Fauna. I also checked with the co-author of MSW3, Dr. Don Wilson of the Smithsonian, who confirmed that it is settled now (July 2013) on Canis rufus but he won't be updating MSW4 until 2016. They do not do interim updates of MSW3 according to Dr. Wilson. If you would like the papers you may contact me on my talk page.Schmiebel (talk) 01:25, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Well based on what you say then the change seems warranted. That an annual checklist (even a widely accepted one) has not caught up with that yet is neither surprising nor really even an issue. The names we use goes by the published nomenclatural acts, the checklist is just a review of the nomenclatural acts currently in use and has a delayed timetable of its own. Unless there is still speculation or other reviews that disagree then this should move forward and keep up with the current literature. I don't need to see the papers thanks, I looked at this from the point of view of a taxonomist, and neutral to the species in question. cheers Faendalimas ^talk 05:51, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Very well. Let's close this thread and turn our attention to the significance in this change in taxonomy on all the articles that link here.  Done. Chrisrus (talk) 22:45, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

The significance of this change on incoming links

What is the significance of this change in taxonomy on articles that link here, such as Subspecies of Canis lupus, Canis, Coywolf, Texas red wolf, and so on? Chrisrus (talk) 22:45, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Good point! I will get to these in coming week or two if nobody else does. Thanks Chrisrus for pointing this out.Schmiebel (talk) 05:52, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Is the Eastern wolf Canis lupus lycaon or Canis lycaon or synonymous with Canis rufus?

Although Chambers et al N. Amer. Fauna 2012, in their extensive holistic review of the latest genetic, behavioral and morphometric studies, opines that the eastern wolf is an independent species (at least the Algonquin Provincial Park wolves are not hybrids) and recommended the taxonomic change to Canis lycaon. However they also raise the possibility that the eastern wolf species is synonymous with the red wolf Canis rufus. I communicated with Don Wilson at the Smithsonian about this also and the argument for what the correct species is for the eastern wolf (perhaps today better described as the eastern Canadian wolf) is controversial, although it is not a gray wolf-coyote hybrid in Algonquin PP. Great Lakes wolves appear to be hybrids between gray wolves and eastern wolves/eastern wolf-coyote hybrids and only when you get to Algonquin Park does the pure eastern wolf strain seem to persist. East/southeast of the Great Lakes are eastern wolf-coyote hybrids aplenty so all this is quite complicated. The status of science for red wolves seems more advanced and settled, with established genetic tests developed to screen red wolf scat to test for hybridization with coyotes. Although the eastern wolf story literature is evolving rapidly, it is not clear that it is an independent species or that Canis rufus is represented by the eastern Canada wolf at the north part of its range and the red wolf of the U.S. southeast in the southern part of its range. Therefore, I do not yet favor changing the Canis lupus lycaon designation to Canis lycaon for the eastern wolf, until more publications emerge and a clear consensus forms, as it has finally for the red wolf. Just one person's opinion though.Schmiebel (talk) 21:19, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately this debate on the species status of the Eastern wolves is still ongoing. Contrary to popular belief, it has not ended yet. The reason for this is due to the fact that some of the outdated researches made suggestions that the Grey wolves did not arrive in the east until a few hundreds of years ago and that the coyotes only arrived here more recently when they in fact had migrated into Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and other parts of the Atlantic regions of Canada long. Some of the wolves may have been here much longer before the first wave of Pre-Columbian Eastern coyotes arrived. The Labrador wolf may be the LAST pure Grey wolf subspecies left in the Atlantic region since all of the Eastern wolves in Canada are known to have varying degrees of coyote genes in them but the ones around the Great Lake and the Atlantic regions are predominately Grey wolves due to backcrossing with either the Great Plains wolves or the Labrador wolves respectively. The Algonquin Park population which is said to be the most genetically distinct population of Eastern wolves had been separated from all of the other Grey wolves and coyote subspecies for hundreds of years but the 2011 research conducted by Roland Kays of the New York Museum suggests that around 600-900 years ago the Eastern wolves may have been pure Grey wolves before they hybridized with the Pre-Columbian eastern coyotes. Overtime, these Coywolf hybrids migrated all over the east and backcrossed with other Grey wolves or other Pre-Columbian coyotes but the Algonquin Park population in Ontario was very much separated from all of the other populations and over generations of interbreeding within their population became more genetically distinct much like how the Island wolves in Vancouver and the Mexican Grey wolves are more genetically distinct from the Rocky mountain wolves even though these wolves are still Grey wolves.

The red wolves in the southeast have a much different origin which is why they are not considered to be the same as the Eastern wolves. There were three populations of Coywolves that gave rise to the red wolves. The Texas population which was later on captured and reintroduced into North Carolina MAY had been hybrids between the now extinct Texas Grey wolves and the southern coyotes. Some of these coyotes in Texas today are still known to have grey wolf haplotypes in them which may have been passed on to them by either the Texas Grey wolves or the Mexican wolves. The other Coywolf population that later on went extinct in the wild was the Mississippi Valley population with may have originated in the aftermath of Grey wolf exterminations back when much of the surrounding areas was being converted into human residents and industrial lands. The remnant Grey wolves would have been forced to cross with the coyotes migrating in from the west and most of the Coywolves backcrossed with other pure coyotes. Some of these Coywolves were later on extracted from the wild and mixed with the captive Texas red wolves. A third Coywolf population was the Florida Black wolves who may have originated from hybrids between the extinct Florida Grey wolves and coyotes from the second wave that migrated into the east. But sadly this population became extinct before it could be properly studied.

Overall, while the Red wolves and Eastern wolves are both known to have mix grey wolf and coyote markers making them both technically Coywolves, they are NOT the same "species" and have different theoretical origins. Nosferatuslayer (talk) 20:54, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Canis rufus?

That's wrong, it's concidered Canis lupus rufus, a subspecies of Gray Wolf with a certain percentage of latrans DNA. Please fix taxobox and text. Chrisrus (talk) 19:50, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

I believe the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature retains the Canis rufus designation. Isn't that what should go in the taxobox? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tdelene (talk • contribs) 01:42, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

I thought wikipedia used "Mammal Species of the World" as it's sole source for taxonomy; it currently lists red wolf (and eastern wolf) as subspecies of the gray wolf.

There was a long debate on this page about what the taxonomy box should say since the literature was debating the issue. I haven't checked this page in a while, but I recall the taxon box being edited to match Mammals Species and we should stop chenging it back and forth. That confusion was why the paragraph about the debate was fleshed out. To be useful, the article has to help clarify the debate for people that don't read the primary scientific literature and go to wikipedia for answers.

I don't know how to edit the taxon box, but the first line shouldn't refer to Canus rufus rufus, since the page discusses the entire species.--Paddling bear (talk) 16:08, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

You are right, Mr. Bear. Go ahead and be WP:bold Chrisrus (talk) 16:15, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

I've edited the taxon box and the first line but wasn't sure what to do about the Trinomial name box. If we use Canis lupus rufus, then we are not usig the original trinomial source. Should we put that into the synonym? What is the new trinomial source? The original would still be the type specimen.--Paddling bear (talk) 16:58, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

I have made some recent editing to include all three possibilities. Because of the fact that the debate between researchers over the classification and species status for the red wolf is still ongoing and probably won't be ending anytime soon, I decided that to satisfy all three sides, I've changed the description on the top from simply Canis rufus to the three possibilites tha the red wolf MAY be a distinct Canis rufus species, a subspecies of the Grey wolf being Canis lupus rufus, or a hybrid between the Grey wolves and the coyotes as many have suggested for a long time. More research needs to be done at present. Nosferatuslayer (talk) 21:05, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Range of the Red wolf.

In "fossil and historic record", it says that bounties to Indians in New York proves that the red wolf lived that far north. However, I did some research on the sources that say that, and it doesnt say that red wolves lived there-it only says wolves. So should I edit out the part of the article that says that red wolves lived in new york? Here are some quotes to back up the fact that the records in the 1700s say nothing about red wolves living in NY, they only mention wolves, which could have very well been gray wolves.

http://eaglesbyte.blogspot.com/2012/01/eastern-new-york-state-timeline-1715.html

1720

State Apr 19

The approximate date pioneer Jacobus Stoughtenburgh arrives in the future Dutchess County, settles what will become Hyde Park. Area settlers begin paying Wappinger and other Indians bounties on wolves.

William Bartram said that Pennsylvania had gray wolves, not the smaller and lighter wolves of the southeast. So why does "range and habitat" say that red wolves lived in Central Pennsylvania? Which reliable sources prove that, and how do those source coincide with what William bartram, a historic source, says? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tuxedo Cat777 (talk • contribs) 04:51, 17 October 2014 (UTC) Tuxedo Cat777 (talk) 13:29, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

Things to cover/modify

1. Make new genetic findings more explicit (if it's been determined to be a hybrid, just say it, and give it more space on the taxonomy section).
2. Address fossil finds (don't they contradict recent origin?)
3. Every comparison made with a coyote or wolf should include the adjective "pure".
4. Address the impact of recent study on conservation efforts. I've already made my stance on the wording; I'd go ahead and just call it a variety of coywolf, but for now I'll let it digest a bit. Mariomassone (talk) 16:53, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Nice handiwork. I think that given the recent finding that it is time to revisit the work done by Koepfli, only using whole-genome technology because all previous timing figures are now questionable. Regards,   William Harris |talk  13:01, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

Do we have a Koepfli cladogram? Chrisrus (talk) 17:02, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

M has them sprinkled across the canid-related pages, one resides at Evolution of the wolf#Wolf-like canids. You both realize the larger implications of Vonholdt? The extant wolf is (largely) stamped "Made in the USA".

• 80,000 YBP (it is actually a band from 120-40k YBP with 80,000 at 95% confidence) the ancestor of all extant wolves came into being as the megafaunally adapted mDNA Haplogroup 2 on the Mammoth Steppe and made its way through the gap in the ice sheets in NA, replacing all other lineages across the Holarctic (apart from the even older Himalayan and Indian Grey wolf, safe behind their mountains).
• 50,000 YBP, the NA ice sheets close, and below it one population of Haplogroup 2 wolves diverge into the Coyote and the Haplogroup 1 wolf (separated by 5 mutations from Haplogroup 2), and replace all of the other Haplogroup 2 wolves south of the ice sheets. It is lighter, more gracile, a faster runner, and a pursuit hunter. Keep in mind that the Pleistocene coyote was much larger back then, and would have been an additional direct competitor to the Haplogroup 2 wolves as well.
• 30,000 YBP the ice sheets open up, and Haplogroup 1 launches itself across the Holarctic while the land bridge was still in place, largely replacing the more basal Haplogroup 2 wolves (plus Skoglund's Taimyr wolf). The Haplogroup 2 Italian wolf adapted to this change, secure in its Apennine stronghold. (I now have the change in its teeth measurements across the last 60,000 years, and 20,000 years ago it was a shocker!)
• 10,000 YBP the land bridge closes, the mammoth steppe is no more, and the Eurasian Haplogroup 1 wolves go through a slight change to be genetically distinguishable from their NA cousins. Sometime just before that, and in the middle of all of this change in Eurasia, came the dog.

Regards,   William Harris |talk  21:17, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

I've already started on the main coywolf article, and it's very hard to write about the eastern coyote, as it freely hybridizes with the eastern wolf, which is itself a hybrid. What we have is a story of predominantly wolf-content hybrids backcrossing with pure coyotes. Mariomassone (talk) 13:09, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Professor VonHoldt put out an earlier paper in May that already covered this introgression (10.1111/mec.13667), something I alluded to on the Talk:Subspecies of Canis Lupus page in June but nobody appeared interested at that time. Now in July we have this one. You have the Coywolf well-covered. You might want to hold off further until the next paper - given this latest finding about grey wolf/coyote divergence it should not be long in coming! We need better explanation from the researchers as to why past mDNA analyses show a long divergence time but nDNA shows a short divergence time. Else, just do the best you can with what little we have. Regards,   William Harris |talk  11:47, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

Very good article, I think.

http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/red_wolf.html

Signed and dated for archive purposes only.  William Harris |talk  11:57, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Latest

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/7/e1501714

Turns out it's a hybrid after all. Mariomassone (talk) 17:45, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

This article should be edited in light of this. (Not just this article, but that's all we talk about here.)

Normally, we phrase such things as just one new theory, but unless some expert publishes some problem with the data or conclusions in an appropriate amount of time, we should phrase it more as a fact. However, that's just my opinion. What do you all think? Chrisrus (talk) 01:38, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

There's much to be done, but I would start by rewriting the lead as "The red wolf is a coywolf native to..." Mariomassone (talk) 12:40, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Barring some sort of sign that experts have found fault with the data or conclusions or something like that, I tend to agree. It seems pretty definitive to me.

In addition to or instead of the apt term "Coywolf", we might want to use a term like hybrid species.

This paper is being written about by prominent science journalists. Here, see for example the Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/29/it-turns-out-the-united-states-has-just-one-true-species-of-wolf/

We should keep an eye on such articles for signs of disagreement.

The sensitive, less matter-of-fact issue is complicated by the species problem and laws such as the endangered species act. Not everyone seems to agree when a hybrid population breeds true enough to be crowned a species and thus deserving of protection.

This should engender backlash from those dedicated to the preservation of the red wolf.

How about "coywolf species"?? Chrisrus (talk) 18:08, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Oknazevad, have you seen http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/7/e1501714 yet? Chrisrus (talk) 03:41, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Yep. Still digesting it a bit, but it does seem to confirm the already-in-the-article 2011 results here (which is a better link to use than the poorly designed website currently used for the ref), which has the same lead author as the new paper. I really like the visual representation of the genomic commonalities in the spread chart (figure 4 in the PDF). That study also shows that the wolves at Algonquin Park have a heavy introgression of coyote genes, but remain primarily wolf (as in C. lupus), while showing that red wolves are mostly coyote with wolf introgression, but a distinct one found in no other wolf population (note the orange color in figure 4, which appears only in the red wolf population). The last genetic remnants of a now-lost wolf subspecies that was once found in the southeast, apparently, but one that was still C. lupus, not a separate species. Also, interesting that it seems to confirm the status of Iberian and Italian wolves as distinct subspecies as they have distinct genetic markers found only in those populations. oknazevad (talk) 16:06, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

William Harris, have you seen http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/7/e1501714 ? Chrisrus (talk) 13:08, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Morning Chris, thanks for the ping. I live in a remote part of the planet and your emailed ping reached me quite some time after I had already made my edit to this article. Some comments for consideration:

• I would be pleased if one individual here would read the research paper (which is publicly available with supplementary material) and not change my edit that was taken from the conclusion of the report.
• The shock finding of the report, that can be found under Discussion, first paragraph, last sentence: " Our analyses suggest that all of the North American canids diverged from a common ancestor less than 6 to 117 ka and that both Great Lakes region wolves and red wolves are highly admixed with different proportions of gray wolf and coyote ancestry." Its derivation can be found under the section Demographic analysis, with the Red wolf having split from the coyote line between 117-55k YBP. Further under Genome Sequencing: "This result contradicts molecular clock calculations based on short mitochondrial control region sequences, which were calibrated using a 1-Ma (million years ago) divergence time between gray wolves and coyotes (10). Despite body size and other phenotypic differences between the two species [for example, (1)] and a long history of coyote- and wolf-like forms in North America (1, 29), the genomic data suggest that modern coyotes and gray wolves are very close relatives with a recent common ancestry."
• No theory is offered as to how this came about, nor how it fits in with wolf migration into North America - nor the recent finding that all grey wolf samples analysed, both extant and extinct, date back to a common wolf ancestor 80,000 YBP (Thalmann 2013, Koblmuller 2016). Knowing his modus operandi then this matter remains "hidden" and not included in any popular press release, but will form another paper in collaboration with those who have made their names in coyote research.
• The supplementary Table 2 shows some degree of coyote ancestry for ALL grey wolves in North America (bar the dog, who is a Eurasian gray wolf - Woof!).
• We cannot say that the red wolf is 70% coyote because the degree of admixture is different with each specimen. Similar for the eastern wolf. Therefore, it is important to use the wording that was carefully chosen by the researchers - refer to my first point above.
• As you can see, this is much more complex than imaginable. But as I always advise - the research only "suggests".
• One question: Who here from the "wolf-pack" is going over to visit the "coyote-pack" on Wikipedia and saying "Greetings, brothers!"?
• I try to stay away from the red and eastern wolf pages as people on these pages become emotionally committed to the debate. However, I would try to steer away from statements about "Coywolves" and "hybrids" for the red wolf, which are terms that indicate very recent ancestry. Technically, this a case of not only "genetic admixture" - which is a term people can easily understand - but a case of introgression of the genome, which is much more complex than hybridization and happened a long time ago. Because of this, there is still possibly an argument for a separate species - genome-wise it is no longer a wolf and no longer a coyote plus this is evolution in action: "that allows for natural selection to occur on admixed genomes and to evolve phenotypes that are adapted to human-altered habitats and changing climates". I await the next paper.

Regards,   William Harris |talk  21:15, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

You've been doing a great job with the cladograms. Do you think you could have one made that summarizes what happened in North America as per Whole-genome sequence analysis shows that two endemic species of North American wolf are admixtures of the coyote and gray wolf? The problem is, I've never seen a cladogram capable of showing clades not just branching but also merging, but would hope that doing so wouldn't diverge any more than needed from the standard cladogram style. Chrisrus (talk) 03:16, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Chris, I am glad that you like the cladograms. Mario got me started and then things developed from their. Now when I put up the structure, Mario populates them with those superb icons of his so they are a joint undertaking. The cladogram facility in Wikipedia does not allow merging, unfortunately. Someone would have to map one in another package and upload it. I understand that people have a lot to get their minds around right now. I know that trying to picture in one image all that has come out of the RKW-pack and the Larson-pack over the past 6 months - plus everything I am aware of previously: Thalmann, Freedman, Skoglund, Fan etc - gives me a headache. It is almost as if the ducks are being lined up for the great dog report, which is to include the wolf and now might include the coyote. We need someone who is at the forefront of genomics and has a simple way of explaining complex issues - we need Larson and his report. Regards,   William Harris |talk  07:01, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

How about...

"The red wolf (Canis rufus[4]/Canis lupus rufus[5]), also known as the Florida wolf or Mississippi Valley wolf[6], is a hybrid coywolf species native to the eastern United States."

...where "coywolf hybrid species" would link to a section of the article coywolf separate from coywolves that are "one-offs" or something other than a naturally selected hybrid species that breeds true.

---?Chrisrus (talk) 14:33, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

I don't see why we should be handling this with kid gloves. There is already a word specifically denoting coyote-wolf hybrids ("coywolf"), let's use it. The fact that the proportion of wolf-coyote content in this particular animal differs from that of the eastern wolf and eastern coyote is just a detail to be explained in the main body of the text. Mariomassone (talk) 16:41, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Yeahbut, are lyceon, rufus and oriens three different coywolves or something better expresseed as "coywolf species"? I see your point if we go on to explain the facts of the matter, but we have to call them something first.

There are coywolves all over the continent, but these three are not just any old coywolves. They're stable populations of interbreeding individuals that breed true and to type and experts can tell them apart easily, so to simply call them "coywolves" is accurate but still not as good as it should be.

What are lyceon, rufus, and oriens? Three different _____________? Chrisrus (talk) 18:09, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

"The red/eastern wolf/coyote is a coywolf of predominantly wolf/coyote ancestry native to..."Mariomassone (talk) 18:15, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Ok but to make my point better how about "the eastern coyote and the red wolf are two different _________s."

We could say that they are two different coywolves, but that's not quite right. Something like "...two different coywolf species" would be more precise, but there's a problem with the word "species", so that's as far as I've gotten. Chrisrus (talk) 03:27, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

New hand-drawn cladogram (provisional) Mariomassone (talk) 09:43, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

Excellent, Mario; now we have direction forward. True progress towards the goal of illustrating this branch of the canid family tree.

However, there's a problem with using a two dimensional tool to show the tree as per the latest.

In brief, lycaon and rufus are together and shouldn't be.

According to "the latest", above, as I gather, please confirm or correct:

First, lupus and latrans diverged.

Despite any re-crossings between those branches, they persist as two separate branches.

The lycaon branch emerged from one re-crossing Lycaon emerges as a separate branch and persists to this day.

At a different time, in another place, the same happens with rufus.

Lately, between the latrans and lycaon branches, Canis oriens appears in exactly the same way. The two cross and continue separate but from the point of crossing comes a second branch, the oriens branch, separate from the lycaon branch.

These are three distinct events. These are three different branches. So the problem is the 2D tools.

The fact is 3D and cladograms have two so it's a problem.

We need to be able to show what actually happened (as per latest) to the reader.

To illustrate, try to add Canis oriens onto this cladogram.

We'd just put it with the other two as if they weren't three separate branches, illustrating the problem.

A solution can be found.

We just allow some fudge, like repeating a taxon, or using dotted lines or colored lines or some such thing, to show what actually happened, (per latest)

Three different sub-branchings emerged from lupus and latrans crossings: one each for lycaon, rufus, and oriens; 3 separate branches. Show that somehow if we can. Chrisrus (talk) 17:20, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

M's diagram, with some amendment (above) and if he has the time, could be put up under both red and eastern wolf articles if nobody has any objections, with a note in brackets that it is based on one recent finding and cite it. It does represent the research to date, even if the work is preliminary and raises other questions. William Harris |talk  23:15, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

Re-introducion efforts doomed to genetic swamping?

As I read it, it seems to say that red wolf re-introduction efforts are doomed to failure due to genetic swamping with so many coyotes in North Carolina.

It would seem an important information to share with readers of this article. Chrisrus (talk) 16:38, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

"coywolf" taxonomy

I stumbled on this recent article on "coywolf" taxonomy: Comment on “northeastern coyote/coywolf” taxonomy and admixture by Tyler J. Wheeldon and Brent R. Patterson. I'm not sure it helps with any of the discussion above, although it does clearly state some issues of concern. Jts1882 (talk) 16:58, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Historic and modern species habitat distribution maps, Wikipedia policy and guidelines on sizing

Wikipedia policy allows enlarging maps and graphs in order to make them legible without having to click on them. This enlargement can be up to 500px.

Wiki guidelines also suggest making adjacent comparative maps the same size for ease of comparison and for article esthetics. Resizing of images for this purpose can be up to 400px, according to Wikipedia policy.

By the way, other specifically comparative-type adjacent images (such as the image with C. Rufus compared to C. Latrans) may also be enlarged, up to 4 or 5 hundred pixels in order to make comparisons easy, again without the reader having to click on the images.

173.66.140.144 (talk) 11:36, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Image sizes

Just a comment on the current image/map size kangaroo action: I'd say for the maps the argument can be made that it's useful to have them at large sizes because details have to be taken in at a glance; for photos it's not a good idea, because they are primarily illustrative and not informative, and anyone wanting to check details can go to the full-size version. So keep the photos at standard thumb and have the maps slightly enlarged? --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 16:09, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

and Louisiana?

Taxonomy section includes "Texas red wolf (Canis rufus rufus) was also functionally extinct in the wild by 1980, although that status was changed to endangered when captive-bred red wolves from Texas were reintroduced in eastern North Carolina in 1987". I checked the ref (being used for that sentence) and the text doesn't mention Texas, but the "historic range" image ( https://www.fws.gov/southeast/images/pages/red-wolf-historic-range.jpg ) on that ref webpage includes "source population"/red-area which is in Texas AND Louisiana. Is it reasonable to add "and Louisiana" to the article resulting in "... captive-bred red wolves from Texas and Louisiana were reintroduced ..."? --EarthFurst (talk) 01:11, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Yes and no! No because the map reflects the range of rufus, not the extant Texas red wolf Canis rufus rufus. Yes because I used another source - I do wish NFWS would stop shuffling their website - that says they took the wolves from extreme southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. I assume Canis rufus rufus occupied southwestern Louisiana, with the extinct Canis rufus floridanus having occupied the rest of Louisiana. Now amended - thanks for bringing this up. William Harris • (talk) • 09:32, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Heppenheimer 2018

Hello User:William Harris, looks like I got into an unexpected dispute. What should I not change/remove? Mainly I intended to elaborate a bit more on the Galveston canids and add some info on the Louisiana study. I did make a few extra changes as well, which seems to be the source of this dispute. Just tell me which changes I shouldn't make. --Geekgecko (talk) 18:21, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello Geekgecko. The issue is what is it that you are trying to say?

• The red wolf is the result of ancient admixture between the grey wolf and the coyote; that is what two whole-genome studies have told us and nobody has disputed it. It also tells us that the Eastern wolf is the same, and that most wolves and coyotes in North America have some degree of ancient admixture between the wolf and the coyote. The two debating parties on what the red wolf is over the past 20 years now both agree on this point. One party says it is a separate species, one says that it is an admixed canid.
• Is the red wolf a separate species? That is a question for the taxonomists to decide, hopefully soon before it goes extinct. The article supports a neutral point of view, which is why Canis rufus appears in the first sentence along with the original classification of Canis lupus rufus.
• Having sorted out taxonomy and the genetic debate (as best we can) the article should next focus on conservation. The two debating parties agree that the red wolf should be preserved, however the legislation does not protect admixed species. It is now up to the legislators - this point is important and should not be deleted.
• Further studies such as Hep. 2018 are best placed under conservation, as the matter relates to conservation. I do not believe that the finding of some alleles in the Galveston canids warrants mention in the lead paragraphs of the article. (Note, I was the one who placed the study in this article in the first place - I was aware of the finding 3 months before it was published.) The finding was not one of a "significant" amount of redwolf alleles, but to followers of redwolf it is worth mentioning in the body text.
• Please also note that under MOS:LEAD, "The lead should stand on its own as a concise overview of the article's topic." Therefore, we do not delete text from the article's body after relocating it in the lead of the article.
• In summary, you may say whatever you like regarding Hep. 2018 in the body of the text under conservation ("Captive breeding and reintroduction" as it is currently called), but be aware that it must be factual and not overstated. (The survey of 7,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a 1.2 billion nucleotide genome would not support a statement of "still known to have significant red wolf ancestry, with some possibly being majority red wolf or even pure red wolf".)

Thanks for presenting your position on the Talk page.

(Where did these ghost alleles originally come from? They are from wolf or coyote populations that no longer exist - that went extinct many hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. Traces of their lineage exist in the ghost alleles (gene expressions) found in the study of the admixed canids found on Galveston Island, which do not match any wolf or coyote populations that exist today, as best we know.) William Harris • (talk) • 10:16, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. I'll re-add the info on the Louisiana canids without overstating the facts.--Geekgecko (talk) 21:00, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

New Study Finds that Red Wolfs are their own

I didn't have time to add this into the proper section of the article, but it is exceptionally important to include. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/there-was-actually-a-study-to-determine-if-red-wolves-are-wolves-the-answer-could-have-doomed-them/ar-BBVwJNW?ocid=spartanntp Have a good night.Mcelite (talk) 04:36, 3 April 2019 (UTC)