breeding dogs and wolves

From: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 03:34:25 +0300


:Henrix <henrix_at_pp.sbbs.se> wrote:
 

:> What? Sorry, but no. None of these, with the possible exception of
:> the wolf, can have fertile offspring with an ordinary dog. The wolf
:> is a disputed case, some say that dogs _can_ have fertile offspring
:> with them.

:The wolf-dog hybrids are so uncontroversial that I've met two. At
:least some mammalogists go so far as to say, "Dogs are gray wolves."
:(See http://www.kcdata.com/~wolf2dog/wayne2.htm.) This paper also
:covers molecular evidence of coyote/wolf hybridization in North
:America. I have read that the jackal and dog can cross, but can't
:immediately find a source (nor a refutation).

Indeed dogs and wolves crossbreed all too readily. This is the biggest issue I have against the keeping of dogs. We have hunted the wolves to sorry little splinter populations in most parts of the world. In the same time we are keeping huge amounts of dogs.   Dogs that are let to roam around in the wilds in areas where wolves live thend to either get killed by the wolves (resulting in more hunting of wolves) or breed with them.
  This worsens the genepool of the wolves, and threatens their continued existance as a canine species, these days more than actual hunting.

But yes, they do indeed interbreed

	-Mikko, the Adept
	 (n:th year Biology major)

I think I think... Therefore I think I am.


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