We applaud the efforts that Wolf Haven has put into the conservation of endangered wolf species and subspecies. However, we have very serious concerns over the plan to stop breeding the Plains Gray Wolves (Canis lupus nubilus) residing at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation (Wolf Haven 2018).

The Plains Gray Wolf, also known as the Buffalo Wolf, is currently classified as a subspecies of the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) that is/was native to the Great Plains and the American West. When Euro-Americans settled those regions, they heavily persecuted the Plains Gray Wolf in order to protect their livestock. Due to this persecution, the subspecies went extinct in the wild by the mid-20th century (Busch 1995; Leonard et al. 2005; “Dr. McCleery” n.d.). During the 1920's, a man named Dr. Edward Heber McCleery rescued the last remaining Plains Gray Wolves before they went completely extinct and established a sanctuary to save the subspecies. Although Dr. McCleery has since long passed, the descendants of the Plains Gray Wolves he rescued continue to exist at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation (“Dr. McCleery” n.d.).

In 1995, taxonomist Ronald Nowak reclassified the Gray Wolves of the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region, east-central Canada, and Baffin Island as populations of the Plains Gray Wolf (Nowak 1995), and this classification is now widely accepted. As such, the Plains Gray Wolf is often described as one of the most common subspecies of Gray Wolf in North America and not at risk of extinction (IWC 2005; USFWS 2013; Castello 2018). However, recent genetic studies have questioned Nowak's reclassification of the Plains Gray Wolf.

The Gray Wolves of the Pacific Northwest are genetically distinct and are increasingly recognized as their own subspecies, the Coastal Gray Wolf (Canis lupus ligoni) (Knowles 2010; Weckworth et al. 2011; NCEAS 2014; Schweizer et al. 2015a; Schweizer et al. 2015b; Castello 2018). Similarly, the Gray Wolves of east-central Canada form their own genetically distinct ecotype, the Atlantic Gray Wolf (Knowles 2010; vonHoldt et al. 2011; Schweizer et al. 2015a; Schweizer et al. 2015b). The Gray Wolves of Baffin Island are genetically closer to the Arctic Gray Wolf (Canis lupus arctos) (Carmichael 2007; Sinding et al. 2018), while the Gray Wolves of the mainland Canadian tundra are an admixed population between the Arctic Gray Wolf and other Gray Wolf subspecies/ecotypes (Knowles 2010; Schweizer et al. 2015a). The "Gray Wolves" of the Great Lakes region are hybrids with either Eastern Wolves (Canis lycaon) or Coyotes (Canis latrans) (vonHoldt et al. 2011; Rutledge et al. 2015; Castello 2018; Sinding et al. 2018; Trent University n.d.), and as such are genetically different from Plains Gray Wolves. That would leave the Gray Wolves of the American West as the only true population of the Plains Gray Wolf, and the only remnant of this population exists at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation.

It has been suggested that the Plains Gray Wolves of the American West are polyphyletic (Hendricks et al. 2015), but regardless of whether they are a valid subspecies or an admixed population, these Gray Wolves had greater genetic diversity than other Gray Wolves, and had distinct haplotypes (genetic markers) that are not found in extant Gray Wolf populations. Those haplotypes that are now thought to be gone (Leonard et al. 2005) could still survive in the Plains Gray Wolves residing at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation. Thus, they could be the last genetic representatives of the Gray Wolves that originally lived in the American West, and conserving the population could be preserving the genetic diversity of Gray Wolves in North America.

In addition, it was recently discovered that there are two major ecomorphs of Gray Wolves in North America: a short-legged ecomorph and a long-legged ecomorph. The Mexican Gray Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) and the Plains Gray Wolf are the only two populations that constitute the short-legged ecomorph; other Gray Wolf populations, including those that Nowak reclassified as "Plains Gray Wolves," belong to the long-legged ecomorph. In order to conserve the ecophenotypic diversity, and consequently the genetic diversity, of Gray Wolves in North America, both ecomorphs need to be preserved. Unfortunately, the short-legged ecomorph is at risk of disappearing, and both the Mexican Gray Wolf and the Plains Gray Wolf need to be protected in order to preserve the short-legged ecomorph (Tomiya & Meachen 2018). Since the Plains Gray Wolves residing at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation represent the remnant members of their subspecies, the conservation of this population may be vital to the preservation of the short-legged ecomorph.

With a population of only around 30 individuals at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation (Wolf Haven 2018), the Plains Gray Wolf is possibly more endangered than both the Mexican Gray Wolf (USFWS & AZGFD 2018) and the Red Wolf (Canis rufus) (USFWS 2018). These endangered wolves have been rescued with a smaller number of founder individuals (USFWS 2018; USFWS & AZGFD 2018), so saving the Plains Gray Wolf is not impossible. Conservationists have an obligation to preserve biodiversity, and the conservation of biodiversity includes the preservation of intraspecific populations in addition to taxonomic species.

To its credit, Wolf Haven is going to cryopreserve the genes of the Plains Gray Wolf (Wolf Haven 2018), and it is possible that those genes could eventually be transplanted into extant Gray Wolf populations through biotechnology. Yet there is currently an opportunity to save the Plains Gray Wolf, so why only cryopreserve their genes when the subspecies itself can still be recovered? De-extinction is still in the beginning stages of research, but one study found that it is more beneficial to recover endangered species than it is to resurrect those species through biotechnology after they go extinct (Bennett et al. 2017).

Existing evidence indicates that the Plains Gray Wolves residing at the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation are both genetically unique and phenotypically distinct, and as such they are worthy of preservation. Therefore, we ask that Wolf Haven reconsider its plan to stop breeding them, and to instead develop a new plan that will save the subspecies and eventually restore it into the wild. At the very least, we ask that both phenotypic and genetic tests are conducted on the population first to determine its conservation value, before breeding is discontinued. Thank you.

References:

Bennett, J. R., R. F. Maloney, T. E. Steeves, J. Brazill-Boast, H. P. Possingham & P. J. Seddon. 2017. Spending limited resources on de-extinction could lead to net biodiversity loss. Nature, Ecology, and Evolution 1(4): 1 - 4.

Busch, R. H. 1995, reprinted 2007. The wolf almanac: a celebration of wolves and their world. Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut.

Carmichael, L. E. 2007. Genetics of northern wolf populations. Government of Nunavut, Department of Environment, Final Wildlife Report: 21, Iqaluit, 45 pp.

Castello, J. R. 2018. Canids of the world. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

Dr. McCleery Lobo Wolves Digital Archive. n.d. <http://www.mccleerywolves.com/>

Hendricks, S. A., P. C. Charruau, J. P. Pollinger, R. Callas, P. J. Figura, & R. K. Wayne. 2014. Polyphyletic ancestry of historic gray wolves inhabiting US Pacific states. Conservation Genetics 16(3): 759 - 764.

IWC (International Wolf Center). 2005. Great plains wolf. <http://archive.wolf.org/wolves/learn/basic/wolf_types/inter_gray/plains.asp>

Knowles, J. 2010. Population genomics of North American grey wolves (Master’s Thesis). University of Alberta. https://doi.org/10.7939/R32G7Z

Leonard, J. A., C. Vila, & R. K. Wayne. 2005. Legacy lost: genetic variability and population size of extirpated US grey wolves (Canis lupus). Molecular Ecology 14: 9 - 17.

NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis). 2014. Review of proposed rule regarding status of the wolf under the Endangered Species Act. University of California. https://www.fws.gov/home/wolfrecovery/pdf/Final_Review_of_Proposed_rule_regarding _wolves2014.pdf.

Nowak, R. M. 1995. Another look at wolf taxonomy. Pages 375 – 397 in Carbyn, L. N. , S. H. Fritts, & D. R. Seip, editors. Ecology and conservation of wolves in a changing world. Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Rutledge, L.Y., S. Devillard, J. Q. Boone, P. A. Hohenlohe, & B. N. White. 2015. RAD sequencing and genomic simulations resolve hybrid origins within North American Canis. Biology Letters 11(7): https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0303

Schweizer, R. M., B. M. vonHoldt, R. Harrigan, J. C. Knowles, M. Musiani, D. Coltman, J. Novembre, & R. K. Wayne. 2015a. Genetic subdivision and candidate genes under selection in North American grey wolves. Molecular Ecology 25(1): 380 - 402.

Schweizer, R. M., J. Robinson, R. Harrigan, P. Silva, M. Galverni, M. Musiani, R. C. Green, J. Novembre, & R. K. Wayne. 2015b. Targeted capture and resequencing of 1040 genes reveal environmentally driven functional variation in grey wolves. Molecular Ecology 25(1): 357 - 379.

Sinding, M. H. S., S. Gopalakrishan, F. G. Vieira, J. A. S. Castruita, K. Raundrup, M. P. H. Jørgensen, M. Meldgaard, B. Petersen, T. Sicheritz-Ponten, J. B. Mikkelsen, U. Marquard-Petersen, R. Dietz, C. Sonne, L. Dalén, L. Bachmann, Ø. Wiig, A. J. Hansen, & M. T. P. Gilbert. 2018. Population genomics of grey wolves and wolf-like canids in North America. PLoS Genetics 14(11): e1007745. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007745

Tomiya, S. & J. A. Meachen. 2018. Postcranial diversity and recent ecomorphic impoverishment of North American gray wolves. Biology Letters 14(1): https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0613

Trent University. N.d. Great lakes-boreal wolf. <http://wolf.nrdpfc.ca/greatlakeswolf.htm>

USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service). 2013. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; removing the gray wolf (Canis lupus) from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife and maintaining protections for the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) by listing it as endangered.

USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service). 2018. Red wolf species status assessment.

USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) & AZGFD (Arizona Game and Fish Department). 2018. 2017 US Mexican wolf population survey completed.

vonHoldt, B. M., J. P. Pollinger, D. A. Earl, J. C. Knowles, A. R. Boyko, H. Parker, E. Geffen, M. Pilot, W. Jedrzejewski, B. Jedrzejewska, V. Sidorovich, C. Greco, E. Randi, M. Musiani, R. Kays, C. D. Bustamante, E. A. Ostrander, J. Novembre,& R. K. Wayne. 2011. A genome-wide perspective on the evolutionary history of enigmatic wolf-like canids. Genome Research 21(8): 1294 - 1305.

Weckworth, B. V., N. G. Dawson, S. L. Talbot, M. J. Flamme, J. A. Cook. 2011. Going coastal: shared evolutionary history between coastal British Columbia and southeast Alaska wolves (Canis lupus). PLoS ONE 6(5): e19582. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019582

Wolf Haven. 2018. Wolf Haven acquires McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation. <http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Wolf-Haven-acquires-McCleery-Wolf-Foundation-in-Montana.html?soid=1114967834266&aid=NctlimS66a8>