wolves

Even with protections, wolves still fear humans

This quickly became an issue, at least for some people. Mieczysław Kacprzak, an MP from Poland’s PSL Party, currently in the ruling coalition, addressed the parliament in December 2017, saying that wolves were roaming suburban roads and streets, terrorizing citizens—in his view, a tragedy waiting to happen. He also said children were afraid to go to school because of wolves and asked for support from the Ministry of Agriculture, which could lift the ban on hunting. An article in “Łowczy Polski,” a journal of the Polish hunting community with a title that translates as “The Polish Huntsman,” later backed these pro-hunting arguments, claiming wolves were a threat to humans, especially children.

The idea was that wolves, in the absence of hunting, ceased to perceive humans as a threat and felt encouraged to approach them. But it was an idea that was largely supported by anecdote. “We found this was not the case,” says Liana Zanette, a biologist at Western University and co-author of the study.

Super predators

To figure out if wolves really were no longer afraid of humans, Zanette, Clinchy, and their colleagues set up 24 camera traps in the Tuchola Forest. “Our Polish colleagues and co-authors, especially Maciej Szewczyk, helped us set those traps in places where we were most likely to find wolves,” Zanette says. “Maciej was literally saying ‘pick this tree,’ or ‘this crossroads.’” When sensors in the traps detected an animal nearby, the system took a photo and played one of three sounds, chosen at random.

The first sound was chirping birds, which the team used as a control. “We chose birds because this is a typical part of forest soundscape and we assumed wolves would not find this threatening,” Clinchy says. The next sound was barking dogs. The team picked this one because a dog is another large carnivore living in the same ecosystem, so it was expected to scare wolves. The third sound was just people talking calmly in Polish. Zanette, Clinchy, and their colleagues quantified the level of fear each sound caused in wolves by measuring how quickly they vacated the area upon hearing it.

De-extinction company announces that the dire wolf is back

Biology, colossal, de-extinction, dire wolf, Science, wolves / Kelly Newman / April 8, 2025

On Monday, biotech company Colossal announced what it views as its first successful de-extinction: the dire wolf. These large predators were lost during the Late Pleistocene extinctions that eliminated many large land mammals from the Americas near the end of the most recent glaciation. Now, in a coordinated PR blitz, the company is claiming that clones of gray wolves with lightly edited genomes have essentially brought the dire wolf back. (Both Time and The New Yorker were given exclusive access to the animals ahead of the announcement.)

The dire wolf is a relative of the now-common gray wolf, with clear differences apparent between the two species’ skeletons. Based on the sequence of two new dire wolf genomes, the researchers at Colossal conclude that dire wolves formed a distinct branch within the canids over 2.5 million years ago. For context, that’s over twice as long as brown and polar bears are estimated to have been distinct species. Dire wolves are also large, typically the size of the largest gray wolf populations. Comparisons between the new genomes and those of other canids show that the dire wolf also had a light-colored coat.

That large of an evolutionary separation means there are likely a lot of genetic differences between the gray and dire wolves. Colossal’s internal and unpublished analysis suggested that key differences could be made by editing 14 different areas of the genome, with 20 total edits required. The new animals are reported to have had 15 variants engineered in. It’s unclear what accounts for the difference, and a Colossal spokesperson told Ars: “We are not revealing all of the edits that we made at this point.”

Nevertheless, the information that the company has released indicates that it was focused on recapitulating the appearance of a dire wolf, with an emphasis on large size and a white coat. For example, the researchers edited in a gene variant that’s found in gray wolf populations that are physically large, rather than the variant found in the dire wolf genome. A similar thing was done to achieve the light coat color. This is a cautious approach, as these changes are already known to be compatible with the rest of the gray wolf’s genome.

De-extinction company announces that the dire wolf is back Read More »