Evolutionary origins of the eastern wolf as proposed by Wilson et al. 2000.  

We use maternal (mitochondrial DNA), paternal (Y-chromosome), and bi-parental microsatellite markers to investigate evolutionary origins and hybridization patterns of eastern wolves in Ontario and the Great Lakes Region of eastern North America, as well as the influence of eastern wolves on eastern coyotes across eastern North America. Recent genetic analysis of maternal and paternal markers demonstrates that eastern wolves evolved in North America alongside coyotes and independent of grey wolves.

The central range for eastern wolves is in and around Algonquin Provincial Park in central Ontario. Although wolves in Algonquin Park have been influenced by historic hybridization with coyotes and some more recent hybridization with grey wolves, they maintain a distinct genetic signature that links them to red wolves that live in the southeastern United States.

In the Great Lakes Region, recent work by Wheeldon and White (2009) suggests that the eastern wolf historically hybridized with both grey wolves and coyotes probably during the last glaciation about 10,000 years ago. Further evidence suggests that eastern wolves have acted as a conduit for gene flow among grey-eastern wolf hybrids and coyote-eastern wolf hybrids. Thus, eastern wolf genes occur across eastern North America in the form of grey-eastern wolf hybrids (known as eastern timber wolves, Ontario type grey wolves, Boreal type grey wolves, or Great Lakes wolves) that occur in southern Manitoba, through the Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, across northern Ontario and into Quebec.

Research by our team members has shown that eastern wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park are genetically different from the grey-eastern wolf hybrids north of the park and from eastern coyotes immediately south of the park.  Gene flow among these populations is mediated by eastern wolves in Algonquin Park because they are able to hybridize with both grey wolves and coyotes. In addition, a family-based pack social structure has been restored to wolf packs residing within the park since the implementation of a hunting and trapping ban in surrounding townships. Maintaining social structure is an important component of wolf conservation because sociality is linked to fitness benefits.

Team members are also researching the genetic make-up of eastern coyotes in southern Ontario and across eastern North America. Recent work shows that the eastern coyote is actually a hybrid between a western coyote that colonized eastern North America about 100 years ago, and an eastern wolf that historically ranged across the eastern temperate forests of eastern North America.

Kenneth Mills with a sedated black grey-eastern wolf hybrid in Algonquin Provincial Park