image: Photograph of a parent-offspring pair of Isle Royale wolves in 2015. The pup, on the left, was visibly deformed - its tail had an unusual twist to it. The posture of the pup did not appear normal (humped appearance), and it is thought to have died by 9 months of age. These wolves were not part of our study but are closely related to individuals that were. The wolf on the right is still alive, and is one of the last two island-born wolves left on the island. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the May 29th, 2019, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by J.A. Robinson at University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA, and colleagues was titled, "Genomic signatures of extensive inbreeding in Isle Royale wolves, a population on the threshold of extinction." view more
Credit: [Credit: Rolf O. Peterson, Michigan Technological University]