Not exact matches
Conservationists are debating, for example, whether the western grey
wolf should have been removed from the Endangered Species list
because genetic studies suggest some of them are
wolf - coyote
hybrids.
It too is mating with coyotes, and
because coyotes outnumber the red
wolves, the
hybrids are back - crossing with coyotes to the extent that the red
wolves could be subsumed into the coyote population.
While these
wolf genes (or, more scientifically speaking, alleles) could be in your dog
because it is a wolfdog
hybrid, wolfiness scores below 10 are almost always due to ancient
wolf genes that have survived many generations to be carried in your dog.
A wolfdog, or what I call the incredible
wolf - dog
hybrid (
because I just adore
wolves and dogs), is the result of a
wolf and dog mix and as a matter of fact, the domestic dog has been re-categorized...
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to tell how many
wolf hybrids are being kept as pets at any given time
because some people who have legitimate
wolf hybrids choose to register them as Husky, Malamute, or Shepherd mix, to avoid legal issues.