Dogs flash back to their wild ancestry when they howl inexplicably at the full moon or pace a circle before lying down. These behaviors may be vestiges of the dogs’ early days as wolves. But new research shows that some wild wolves probably inherited a trait from their domesticated cousins. Black wolves received a gene for coat color from domesticated dogs through interspecies breeding, suggests research in the Feb. 6 Science.
“This may be the first time a domestic trait has gone into the wild and been beneficial,” says coauthor Tovi Anderson of Stanford University.