Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

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Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Canidae » Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:32 pm

A 'golden jackal' living in north Africa is really a grey wolf, scientists have discovered.

The animal's true identity was revealed when researchers compared its DNA with samples in GenBank, a genetic database.

Until now, the Egyptian jackal - Canis aureus lupaster - had been considered a rare sub-species of the golden jackal.

The new evidence shows it is not a jackal at all, but a type of grey wolf.

'We could hardly believe our own eyes when we found wolf DNA that did not match anything in GenBank,' said Dr Eli Rueness, from the University of Oslo.

The discovery has conservation implications. Golden jackals are not considered endangered, but the newly unmasked African grey wolf might be.

Writing in online journal Public Library of Science ONE, the researchers said: 'The only grey wolf species to inhabit the African continent is a cryptic species for which the conservation status urgently needs assessment.'

Genetically similar jackals - now thought to be wolves - were also identified 1,550miles away from Egypt in the highlands of Ethiopia.

As long ago as 1880 the evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley commented that Egyptian golden jackals looked suspiciously like grey wolves.

The same doubts have been raised by several 20th century biologists studying the animals' skulls.

The new genetic research, involving scientists from Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, shows beyond doubt that the Egyptian 'golden' jackal is a grey wolf.

Grey wolves are now thought to have colonised Africa around three million years ago, before they spread throughout the northern hemisphere.

Professor David Macdonald, who led the Oxford team, said: 'A wolf in Africa is not only important conservation news but raises fascinating biological questions about how the new African wolf evolved...'

The Egyptian jackal could now be re-named the African wolf, said the scientists.
This article made me grin; I love when scientists make breakthrough discoveries like these.

Oh, I found the article at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -test.html
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Alpha Female » Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:40 pm

Wow, amazing find! I would have never expected a jackal to be a wolf.
Thanks for sharing Canidae!
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Crocotto » Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:08 pm

Interesting, I know large wolves don't live in warm climates due to a combination of Bergmann's rule and the inability to compete with hyenas (that's why large wolves never reached south Asia and Africa, and had trouble getting into North America [cave hyenas])

So it appears these wolves grew much smaller to fill a different ecological niche. Interesting
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by La Striata » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:01 am

The irony of all this is that the moment this canid gets reclassified as a wolf, only then will conservationists pay any attention to it. After all, when was the last well publicised "Save the Jackal" campaign?
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Crocotto » Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:23 am

La Striata wrote:The irony of all this is that the moment this canid gets reclassified as a wolf, only then will conservationists pay any attention to it. After all, when was the last well publicised "Save the Jackal" campaign?
point made, maybe if people started calling the Brown and Striped hyenas, "Bear-Wolves" and "Tiger Wolves" again they would stop being denied a spot on the ESA's list
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Canidae » Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:51 pm

La Striata wrote:The irony of all this is that the moment this canid gets reclassified as a wolf, only then will conservationists pay any attention to it. After all, when was the last well publicised "Save the Jackal" campaign?
'The only grey wolf species to inhabit the African continent is a cryptic species for which the conservation status urgently needs assessment.'
They're not starting a "Save the African wolf" campaign just yet. They're just saying they need to evaluate the conservation status in order to determine if such a campaign is even needed.


Besides, now that they know it's an entirely different species than the golden jackal, suddenly it becomes much more important to take a look at the number of Egyptian jackals/African wolves that still remain in existence. If the Egyptian jackals had begun disappearing before this scientific discovery, it would have only meant the loss of a subspecies of the golden jackal, and the species as a whole would have remained completely fine. But now that they're a completely different species, it will all be over if they disappear.

And before you start comparing the Egyptian jackals to the Mexican gray wolf or Florida panther (both highly endangered subspecies of a larger species that's doing fine, yet both subspecies have large conservation programs set up for them), keep in mind that both of those animals live in the United States, and the U.S. values animal conservation much more than most African countries...

Crocotto wrote:point made, maybe if people started calling the Brown and Striped hyenas, "Bear-Wolves" and "Tiger Wolves" again they would stop being denied a spot on the ESA's list
As far as I know, the Endangered Species Act only applies to the United States, and animals from other countries cannot be listed on it. We have no jurisdiction in those countries; we can't tell them what to do with their animals.
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Sulfide » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:53 pm

Canidae wrote:And before you start comparing the Egyptian jackals to the Mexican gray wolf or Florida panther (both highly endangered subspecies of a larger species that's doing fine, yet both subspecies have large conservation programs set up for them), keep in mind that both of those animals live in the United States, and the U.S. values animal conservation much more than most African countries...
The Mexican wolf was actually listed as "extinct in the wild" in the 70s because they brought the last 5 remaining wild wolves out of Mexico to start the captive breeding program. Now, I'm not going to argue their conservation, but I'm merely pointing out that because of this, their population is deemed "experimental/nonessential" due to rule 10j under the ESA. There are more wolves in captivity than those returned to the wild.
Canidae wrote:As far as I know, the Endangered Species Act only applies to the United States, and animals from other countries cannot be listed on it. We have no jurisdiction in those countries; we can't tell them what to do with their animals.
You're right about that, but this is where the IUCN and CITES come into play. While both don't necessarily act like our ESA, both help regulate trafficking of animals between countries and manage numbers of species in all countries around the world to help bring attention to those that need it. IUCN works through the United Nations and pulls funds from different countries to help their "Red List" and CITES manages animals/plants being traded so that they do not affect their overall survival.
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Canidae » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:56 pm

Sulfide wrote:
Canidae wrote:And before you start comparing the Egyptian jackals to the Mexican gray wolf or Florida panther (both highly endangered subspecies of a larger species that's doing fine, yet both subspecies have large conservation programs set up for them), keep in mind that both of those animals live in the United States, and the U.S. values animal conservation much more than most African countries...
The Mexican wolf was actually listed as "extinct in the wild" in the 70s because they brought the last 5 remaining wild wolves out of Mexico to start the captive breeding program. Now, I'm not going to argue their conservation, but I'm merely pointing out that because of this, their population is deemed "experimental/nonessential" due to rule 10j under the ESA. There are more wolves in captivity than those returned to the wild.
Oh yeah I know that. xD There are several times as many captive ones as wild ones; in fact, I've personally seen more captive lobos than the number that exists in the wild.

Oh, and I thought the Mexican wolf breeding program began with 7 wolves of three different bloodlines, not 5 wolves?
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Sulfide » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:58 pm

Canidae wrote:Oh yeah I know that. xD There are several times as many captive ones as wild ones; in fact, I've personally seen more captive lobos than the number that exists in the wild.

Oh, and I thought the Mexican wolf breeding program began with 7 wolves of three different bloodlines, not 5 wolves?
I've heard 5. 4 males, 1 female. It's a very diluted gene pool. :\
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Canidae » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:13 pm

Ah you're right it was five. I have terrible memory.

EDIT: Oh, and:
Sulfide wrote:The Mexican wolf was actually listed as "extinct in the wild" in the 70s because they brought the last 5 remaining wild wolves out of Mexico to start the captive breeding program. Now, I'm not going to argue their conservation, but I'm merely pointing out that because of this, their population is deemed "experimental/nonessential" due to rule 10j under the ESA. There are more wolves in captivity than those returned to the wild.
I know that they're experimental/nonessential, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still highly endangered. o.O
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Thandi » Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:52 pm

How cool, it's nice that they finally classified it correctly.
everything out of the ordinary is considered weird, i try to stay clear of the eathlings and their fears

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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Crocotto » Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:25 am

Canidae wrote:
As far as I know, the Endangered Species Act only applies to the United States, and animals from other countries cannot be listed on it. We have no jurisdiction in those countries; we can't tell them what to do with their animals.
I referring to ESA's international affiliations such as the IUCN, and the international lists such as the red list on the ESA's site

And you do have to admit, it is interesting people only NOW pay attention to this species AFTER it had the word wolf attached to it's name
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Canidae » Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:30 am

Crocotto wrote:
Canidae wrote:
As far as I know, the Endangered Species Act only applies to the United States, and animals from other countries cannot be listed on it. We have no jurisdiction in those countries; we can't tell them what to do with their animals.
I referring to ESA's international affiliations such as the IUCN, and the international lists such as the red list on the ESA's site

And you do have to admit, it is interesting people only NOW pay attention to this species AFTER it had the word wolf attached to it's name

What attention have you seen given to this animal, other than this 13-post topic and a few news articles?

Again, I really need to remind you: This is WOLFQUEST. We talk about wolves here. And of course there would be a few news articles on this subject, as it's a new scientific discovery.
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Blightwolf » Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:05 am

This discovery certainly annihilated my personal theory on this subject, haha!

I'm thrilled, this is really interesting. It's also kind of amusing because there has been a years-long debate between scientists about the status of canids that were called called jackals but are in fact wolves (Ethiopian wolf, Egyptian wolf; both were initially labeled as subspecies of the Golden Jackal, if I remember correctly).

Makes me wonder, though... will the African wolf be classified as a gray wolf subspecies or will it become a separate species of wolf, like the Ethiopian wolf currently (?) is?
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Re: Golden Jackal = African Wolf! This is extremely interesting.

Post by Crocotto » Sat Jan 29, 2011 8:25 am

Canidae wrote: What attention have you seen given to this animal, other than this 13-post topic and a few news articles?

Again, I really need to remind you: This is WOLFQUEST. We talk about wolves here. And of course there would be a few news articles on this subject, as it's a new scientific discovery.
That's more attention then I saw it ever getting before when it was called a jackal

and I actually saw this discovery on the news site before I saw it here
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