Read a most interesting piece in the local news this morning:

This guy with credentials and experience writing about a dog wolf breeding program out of Russia. This wolf and dog researcher, Bologov, has according to some French documentary admitted to releasing 96 hybrid wolves in Russian Karelia. That's right on the Finnish border. His work is funded by German nature organizations among others.

Apparently large dogs and female wolves in heat are able to mate under controlled forms. Wild wolves don't mate in captivity. Hybrid offspring is accepted by "pure" wolves as mating partners. This guy wants to see how these hybrids behave in the wild.

Apparently they used Wolf / German Shepard hybrids for border control in the Soviet days, so called border dogs, before electronic surveillance came into being. That particular hybrid is very alert and doesn't bark making it ideal for border patrol duty...


Ok, so our local news is behind a paywall so I will not provide a link, but I'll keep you updated.

So these were dog-wolf hybrids? Am I getting this right?

They don't know yet. Apparently it's not an easy task to determine wolf from dog dna? It will take a few weeks before we know.

This guy in the article says there aren't any other than hybrid wolves in Finland, a claim that would have great implications if proven true as according to the Bern Convention that Finland signed such hybrids should be terminated.

Apparently evidence has been destroyed by police in previous cases. The plot thickens...  


Meanwhile in town just north of here today:



That's at Killingholmen no less  

They also shot one of the wolves here in town today. A female.

I would love to make friends with them .
I have Steaks , they'd be my Buddies they would indeed .

me and puppies got this thing going on .

squirrels too , squirrels love me too ..

and ,,, and ,,, Kittehs !

and Birdies ,,, and ,,, Bunnies ,,,

and even Guinea Pigs like me ,,,

and ,,,,,,,
Women too

hey , that Puppies looking up that Girls dress at the Gas Pump !

what a Wolf

Quote:Apparently they used Wolf / German Shepard hybrids for border control in the Soviet days, so called border dogs, before electronic surveillance came into being. That particular hybrid is very alert and doesn't bark making it ideal for border patrol duty...

They do bark if danger is near or in warning otherwize are quiet

Trained one will stay silent if told to stay quiet

If danger is visible & up close they snarl like a wolf

Their howling is like a wolf..very similar in sound

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfdog

A wolfdog (also called a wolf–dog hybrid or wolf hybrid) is a canid hybrid resulting from the hybridization of a domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) to one of five other Canis sub-species, the gray (Canis lupus), eastern timber (Canis lycaon), red (Canis rufus), ethiopian (Canis simensis) or arctic wolves (Canis arctos).

German Shepherds
In the original German Shepherd studbook, Zuchtbuch für Deutsche Schäferhunde (SZ), within the two pages of entries from SZ No. 41 to SZ No. 76, there are four wolf crosses.[17] This is the first documented use of pure wolf genes to create a domestic dog breed, the German Shepherd, which is historically thought to be the first documented intentionally-bred wolfdog.

I was unaware the German Shepherd was an intentionally-bred wolf dog.
I've never owned one, but the ones I've been around have been pretty chillin' and sociable.
If the origins are proven true, this is a real game changer - I guess it's time to start walking around with rifle.

My dad bred/raised/trained/sold/documented papered german shepherd dogs
Was a hobby to him & they Always sold fast(at a high price).
Been around them most of my life
One word suffices to express them:
Unpredictable

(03-18-2018, 08:12 PM)Octo Wrote:  They don't know yet. Apparently it's not an easy task to determine wolf from dog dna? It will take a few weeks before we know.

This guy in the article says there aren't any other than hybrid wolves in Finland, a claim that would have great implications if proven true as according to the Bern Convention that Finland signed such hybrids should be terminated.

Apparently evidence has been destroyed by police in previous cases. The plot thickens...  


Meanwhile in town just north of here today:



That's at Killingholmen no less  

There is a place there called Killingholmen?

I found a 2015 map of where wolf packs were located in various regions of Finland. If these packs follow their prey across vast regions, then I we need to look at not only their prey's migratory behaviour but how man's activities/behaviour plays a part.

http://wolfeducationinternational.com/ma...nd-norway/



From the paper in the link above:
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1.1.3
Predation in a multi-prey, multi-predator, heterogeneous, and anthropogenic landscape Predation is a complex process, and we cannot study predation without taking into account other processes that may interact with it. A food web usually consists of multiple prey and predator species at different trophic levels, some of them generalists, others specialists. Even within the same species, there can be individual or age - and sex-specific variation in predatory and anti-predator behaviour and therefore, simple one - predator - one - prey models are often too simplistic.

Intraguild prey and predators interact in complex, intra- and interspecific processes that may change with resource productivity and along other environmental gradients.

Contrary to experimental settings, natural environments are heterogeneous. Prey vulnerability and the risk of predation may both vary, depending on the type of habitat the degree of habitat fragmentation, and the form and size of habitat patches. In a review on predation and habitat heterogeneity the authors emphasize the need to analyze the different stages of predation (search, encounter, kill, and consume prey), and to work at multiple spatial scales, to understand the effect of habitat on predator - prey dynamics. The most pronounced habitat changes during the past centuries are man - made. Habitat loss, fragmentation by roads and power lines, habitat deterioration and enrichment can all affect predator and have triggered a broad set of conservation - oriented studies. The classical edge - effect studies, for example, look at kill - or predation rates along a spatial gradient across edge habitats. The results of these studies are, however, inconsistent.

Not only do humans change habitat, we also impact predator - prey dynamics directly by 1) manipulating both predator and prey population numbers, legally or illegally 2) changing geographic distributions with local extirpation and introduction of predator and prey species and 3) performing selective harvesting of individuals with specific traits

Therefore, humans may play a key role in shaping the patterns of predator - prey interactions in many ecosystems.
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So, JR & Octo, if you two are living in an ever-decreasing landscape where prey animals are being forced/pushed into, then you can expect the predators to follow. So, as another members here suggested to carry a rifle at all times is a good idea.

3 hours ago about 30 km (18.6 miles) north of us:

Information tidbit:

Quote:Wolves prefer to eat large mammals such as moose, deer, and caribou but they also eat birds, fish, mice, snowshoe hares, beavers, and muskrats. Wolves usually hunt in packs but in the spring and summer when there is plenty of prey available they hunt alone