Wolves at the more

Wolves in America and Europe are facing a change of fortune after centuries of hunting that have seen them become extinct in many areas and reduced to tiny populations elsewhere. But new conservation measures in the US and Europe are having a dramatic impact. Wolves have already recolonised parts of the US Rocky Mountains, and they have been reintroduced successfully to parts of Idaho and Montana. A project led by David Brunckhorst of the University of New England has seen these animals back as a valued part of the ecosystem in these states. Things are tougher in Europe with the higher density of humans and a more fragmented habitat. But a new study has looked at the population of wolves in Italy, showing that a recently established Alpine population has developed from a small isolated population in the Apeninnes that appears to have managed to cross the intensively cultivated Po valley. By the 1970s, Italian wolves had strongly declined and were limited to approximately 100 individuals surviving in two fragmented populations in the central-southern Apeninnes. In Western Europe, the only other surviving wolves were in Iberia. Because of more effective legal protection and substantial changes in the ecology of mountain areas that have seen some reduction in human density and an increase in wild ungulates, the wolf decline began to reverse in the 1980s. And the new study by an international team led by Elena Fabbri at the Italian Wildlife Institute in Ozzano Emilia, published in Molecular Ecology (online), finds evidence that the tiny populations of Italian wolves, under these new conditions, appear to be making tracks across the country. The team studied 12 autosomal microsatellite loci in tissue and fecal samples from the Italian wolf populations for more than 20 years from 1982. From their results they identified 435 distinct wolf genotypes which revealed that the Alpine wolves had a significantly lower genetic diversity than the wolves in the Apennines and that the Alpine population had been established unidirectionally from the Apennines and was male biased. Wolves from southern Italy did not contribute to the Alpine population. Feature Wolves are benefiting from new conservation measures and a new molecular study reveals the expansion of the Italian population. Nigel Williams reports. Wolves at the more " Levels of genetic diversity in the expanding Alpine wolf population, and the permanence of genetic structuring will depend on the future rates of gene …