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Courtesy of The National Park
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Gray Wolves on the rebound
Campus scientists help endangered species thrive
BY Phil Hampton
UCLA Today
Ten years after the federal government reintroduced gray wolves
to Yellowstone National Park, researchers at the UCLA Conservation
Genetics Resource Center are helping wildlife managers keep this
and other endangered species alive and thriving.
Under a contract awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and the Yellowstone Park Foundation, researchers are analyzing blood
samples taken from 450 wolves to determine mating and migration
patterns and secure other data. Results are expected this summer.
“This is the most comprehensive genetic analysis of North
American carnivores ever undertaken,” said Robert K. Wayne,
professor of biology and co-founder of the center. “Through
DNA testing, we can learn so much about the hidden lives of these
wolves, such as who is mating with whom and how they move from one
place to another, and help determine the conditions necessary for
successful reintroduction of other species in the future.”
Gray wolves once flourished in Yellowstone National Park and other
parts of the northern Rocky Mountains, but a public bounty had eliminated
them by 1940. In January 1995, federal wildlife agents transplanted
66 wolves from Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, to Yellowstone
and parts of Idaho. Today, more than 700 wolves inhabit these areas
and northwest Montana.
UCLA scientists will help determine whether there is significant
gene flow among these wolf populations — a factor that will
influence future management policies and affect proposed plans to
remove the Western gray wolf from the U.S. Endangered Species List.
The center is also providing support for Rocky Mountain National
Park’s study of mule deer genetics and chronic wasting disease.
Researchers are assisting Oxford University-led conservation efforts
by analyzing the social structure of the world’s most endangered
canid, the Ethiopian wolf. The center is also assembling what is
believed to be one of the world’s largest collections of bird
feathers — approximately 30,000 — dedicated for genetic
and isotopic analyses. That work is being done for U.S. national
parks, forests and wildlife refuges.
Supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
and the Center for Tropical Research, the resource center was also
co-founded by Biology Professor Thomas B. Smith, an avian expert
who directs the tropical research center at the UCLA Institute of
the Environment.
Visit www.ioe.ucla.edu/cgrc.htm
for details.
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