Mysterious Galveston Island Canines (IMAGE)

Princeton University

Mysterious Galveston Island Canines

Caption

Wildlife biologist Ron Wooten spotted this pack of canines on Galveston Island, Texas, in a region where red wolves were declared regionally extinct more than 35 years ago. Princeton biologists Bridgett vonHoldt and Elizabeth Heppenheimer identified that these canines share DNA with coyotes and with a captive breeding group of red wolves. They also have unique genetic material that may represent genes that had been lost in the small population of wolves that began the captive breeding program in the 1970s.

Credit

Courtesy of Ron Wooten

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