This half-dog, half-wolf discovery is shaking up what we know about nature – Futura, le média qui explore le monde

Past reports of hybrids in Europe relied entirely on claims based on appearance. Identification by sight alone is unreliable, which makes this DNA-verified case the first confirmed for the region
Breeding between the two species is simple. Gray wolves and domestic dogs share 99.96% of their DNA. Despite splitting from a common ancestor between 14,000 and 40,000 years ago, the genetic distance between them remains small. Like dingoes, coyotes, and jackals, wolves and dogs share the same number of chromosomes and can easily produce fertile offspring.
Global data shows that more than half of all analyzed Eurasian wolf genomes contain fragments of domestic dog DNA, meaning this kind of mixing has occurred naturally throughout history. The Greek finding stands out because researchers now have clear genetic evidence within this specific population.
The hybrid is a direct byproduct of Greece’s shifting landscape. Since a hunting ban went into effect in 1983, the country’s wolf population has rebounded to an estimated 2,075 individuals. At least three packs now roam the mountains just outside Athens, meaning wolves are reclaiming territories they haven’t occupied in decades.
As wolf territory expands, it runs right into Greece’s stray dog crisis, which numbers over three million animals living on the edges of towns and countryside. The hybrid likely came from a stray dog and a wolf breeding. Such encounters are rare, as wolves typically kill unfamiliar dogs viewed as competitors.
Unlike high profile biotech projects aimed at engineering extinct wolf DNA in a lab, this hybrid happened naturally. While a laboratory experiment only shows what technology can do, this animal gives researchers a look at what the environment is actually doing as wild predator populations recover across Europe.
Callisto researchers are now trying to locate the hybrid to study its behavior and see if it is traveling in packs or living alone. Identifying these animals by sight is impossible, so researchers cannot know the scale without widespread DNA testing. The Halkidiki finding confirms that as wolves reclaim territory in Europe, their paths are crossing with domestic populations.

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