A parasite might be driving some wolves to lead or go solo.
Wolves in Yellowstone National Park infected with a certain microbe make more daring decisions than uninfected wolves. The infected wolves’ enhanced risk-taking means they are more likely to leave their pack or become its leader.
“Those are two decisions that can really benefit wolves — or could cause wolves to die,” notes Connor Meyer. So the new findings reveal a parasite’s potent ability to influence a wolf’s fate. Meyer is a biologist at the University of Montana in Missoula. He and his colleagues shared their discovery November 24 in Communications Biology.
Wolf infections
The puppet-master parasite is called Toxoplasma gondii. This single-celled creature has a track record of changing animal behaviors. Infected mice, for example, can lose their fear of cats. This makes the mice more likely to get eaten. And that’s good for T. gondii, which breeds inside felines’ small intestines.
Recent research has shown that in Yellowstone National Park, T. gondii infects many wolves. Meyer’s team wondered if the park’s gray wolves (Canis lupus) showed any parasite mind-bending of their own.
To find out, they pored over about 26 years’ worth of data covering 229 of the park’s wolves. These data included blood samples and observations of the wolves’ behaviors and movements.
Screening the wolf blood for antibodies against T. gondii parasites revealed which animals were infected. The researchers also noted which wolves left their pack or became a pack leader. A wolf pack usually includes a mom, dad and their kids.
Leaving a pack or becoming a pack leader are both high-stakes moves, Meyer says. Wolves without a pack are more likely to starve,…
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