The

Eastern Wolf
What we do and do not know...

Linda Rutledge
Trent University
“... there are two varieties of the wolf inhabiting the
Catskill Mountains in the United States, one with a light
greyhound-like form, which pursues deer, and the other
more bulky, with shorter legs, which more frequently
attacks the shepherd’s flocks.” Charles Darwin (1859)
Greyhounds & Mastiffs
small...
small...
reddish...
small...
reddish...
deer-eater...
small...
reddish...
deer-eater...
eastern US/Canada
Algonquin wolves have...

Eastern Coyote Algonquin Wolf NE Ontario Wolf

a small skull
Algonquin wolves have...

a small body
Algonquin wolves have...

a reddish pelage
Algonquin wolves are...

deer-eaters
Algonquin wolves are...

greyish
Algonquin wolves are...

black
Algonquin wolves are...

moose-eaters
Algonquin wolves are...

... variable
mtDNA
mtDNA
 grey wolves

mtDNA
 coyotes

grey wolves

mtDNA
 eastern wolves

coyotes

grey wolves

mtDNA
Y
Wilson et al. 2000
Wilson et al. 2000
Forest clearing & wolf
eradication led to eastern
invasion by western coyotes
Red Wolf Great Lakes Wolf Eastern Coyote

Eastern Wolves
 Canis lycaon (x latrans x
lupus)
Algonquin Type Grey Wolf
Eastern Timber Wolf
Eastern Wolf
Canis lupus x lycaon
Eastern Timber Wolf
Boreal Grey Wolf
Ontario Grey Wolf
Great Lakes Wolf
Eastern Wolf?
Canis lycaon? Canis latrans x lycaon
Tweed Wolf
Brush Wolf
Eastern Coyote
Coywolf
 Algonquin Park Wolves:
Southern Edge of a Metapopulation?
Coyote Algonquin Wolf Grey Wolf Hybrid
What we don’t know...
What we don’t know...

?
“One should never quarrel about words, and
never get involved in questions of terminology. ”
Karl Popper

Karl Popper
ESA & COSEWIC think in terms of
“species” and “population size”.
2.4 billion nucleotides
2.4 billion nucleotides
19,300 genes
2.4 billion nucleotides
19,300 genes

< 0.00002%
Algonquin wolf is
the eastern wolf.
Canis lycaon
Great Lakes wolf is
a grey-eastern hybrid.
Canis lupus x lycaon
Eastern coyote is
a coyote-eastern wolf hybrid.
Canis latrans x lycaon