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Long-distance dispersal of a wolf, Canis lupus, in northwestern Europe

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An Erratum to this article was published on 26 May 2015

Abstract

Several mammal species have recolonized their historical ranges across Europe during the last decades. In November 2012, a wolf-looking canid was found dead in Thy National Park (56° 56′ N, 8° 25′ E) in Jutland, Denmark. DNA from this individual and nine German wolves were genotyped using a genome-wide panel of 22,163 canine single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and compared to existing profiles based on the same marker panel obtained from northeastern Polish (n = 13) wolves, domestic dogs (n = 13) and known wolf-dog hybrids (n = 4). The Thy canid was confirmed to be a wolf from the German-western Polish population, approximately 800 km to the southeast. Access to the German reference database on DNA profiles based on 13 autosomal microsatellites of German wolves made it possible to pinpoint the exact pack origin of the Thy wolf in Saxony, Germany. This was the first documented observation of a wolf in Denmark in 200 years and another example of long-distance dispersal of a carnivore.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all volunteers involved in sampling faecal samples and providing information on wolf sightings and behaviour in Germany and Poland. Microsatellite analyses of wolf samples from the Lausitz area were performed on behalf of the Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Landwirtschaft. We want to thank Marcin Górny, Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Science, Bialowieza, Poland for preparing the map. AROS Applied Biotechnology A/S, Aarhus, Denmark is gratefully acknowledged for granting and conducting the canid chip genotyping. CN was funded from the grant SAW-2011-SGN-3 from the Leibniz Association (Germany). AVS received support from the Danish Research Council, grant no. DFF—1337-00007. CP has been supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council (grant number: #21-01-0526, #21-03-0125 and 95095995). This study was partly funded by BIOCONSUS (Research Potential in Conservation and Sustainable Management of Biodiversity, 7th Framework Programme contract no. 245737—AVS), the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant no. NN 303 418437) and the Aalborg Zoo Conservation Foundation (AZCF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Kalø, Grenåvej 14, 8410, Rønde, Denmark

    Liselotte Wesley Andersen & Aksel Bo Madsen

  2. Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Clamecystraße. 12, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany

    Verena Harms & Carsten Nowak

  3. Laboratorio di Genetica, ISPRA, 40064, Ozzano dell’Emilia (BO), Italy

    Romolo Caniglia, Elena Fabbri & Ettore Randi

  4. Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Science, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland

    Sylwia D. Czarnomska & Bogumiła Jędrzejewska

  5. LUPUS – German Institute for Wolf Monitoring and Research, Dorfstraße 20, 02979, Spreewitz, Germany

    Gesa Kluth & Ilka Reinhardt

  6. Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Frederik Bajers Vej 7H, DK-9220, Aalborg Øst, Denmark

    Cino Pertoldi, Ettore Randi & Astrid Vik Stronen

  7. Aalborg Zoo, Mølleparkvej 63, DK-9000, Aalborg, Denmark

    Cino Pertoldi

Authors
  1. Liselotte Wesley Andersen
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  2. Verena Harms
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  3. Romolo Caniglia
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  4. Sylwia D. Czarnomska
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  5. Elena Fabbri
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  6. Bogumiła Jędrzejewska
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  7. Gesa Kluth
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  8. Aksel Bo Madsen
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  9. Carsten Nowak
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  10. Cino Pertoldi
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  11. Ettore Randi
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  12. Ilka Reinhardt
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  13. Astrid Vik Stronen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liselotte Wesley Andersen.

Additional information

Communicated by: Allan McDevitt

Author order apart from first, second and senior author is in alphabetic order.

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Andersen, L.W., Harms, V., Caniglia, R. et al. Long-distance dispersal of a wolf, Canis lupus, in northwestern Europe. Mamm Res 60, 163–168 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0220-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0220-6

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