Dogs, wolves have common background

By Diane Tipton, Montana FWP information officer - 11/21/2006

A story about a canid is a guaranteed conversation starter in Montana. Whether the subject is wolves, coyotes, or domestic dogs, many Montanans have personal experiences to share and they usually find fascinated listeners.

Five members of the canid family are commonly found in Montana. Two are foxes — the red and swift fox. Those that get the most attention, however, are the gray wolf, the coyote and the domestic dog.

It may sound odd to speak of dogs, coyotes and wolves as members of a single family, but many biologists agree that they are.

A respected 2005 taxonomic and geographic reference classifies the domestic dog as Canis lupus familiaris, putting the dog under the umbrella of the gray wolf, rather than its earlier classification of Canis familiaris. The Smithsonian Institute’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology said this change represents the consensus of biologists who believe that the wolf and the dog share a single gene pool and that dogs were domesticated from wolves.

Though some would argue this point, Dr. Robert Wayne, professor at the University of California in Los Angeles would not. Wayne and his colleagues, who study coyote, wolf, and dog genetics, have found that dog DNA differs from wolf DNA by only 0.2 percent at most. In comparison, wolf DNA differs from coyote DNA by about four percent.

Though wolves and dogs are genetically diverse and found in most parts of the world, the coyotes’ genetic diversity is not as great. Despite this difference, coyotes, wolves, and dogs are sufficiently alike to be capable of successfully interbreeding, though that generally doesn’t occur. They also seem to share a fascination with humankind.

Humankind hasn’t always rewarded canids for their interest, and yet the four legs persist, carrying on an eons old relationship.

For their part, coyotes are going urban. Researchers have found that a surprising number of coyotes have adapted to life in cities such as Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C. Urban coyotes have shrunk their territories to a fraction of a rural coyote pack’s in exchange for a beneficial new association with humans.

Meanwhile, miniaturized dogs from working breeds such as the Australian shepherd are newly popular, while other breeders are working to “recover” the original Native American dog.

Whatever its source, the age-old link between canids and humans is undeniable and Montanans have a front row seat on the action.