19201

Eskimos are reported to occasionally tie female Malamutes in heat out in the wilderness to be impregnated by wolves. This is supposed to keep their dog lines vigorous. The converse, male Malamutes impregnating female wolves, is not reported. If this process has happened widely in history, then there may have been three dog Eves in East Asia, but dog Adams may have come from everywhere and not show up in the mitochondrial DNA at all.

Bruce Sanders
Greencastle, Ind.

To conclude or suggest that Stone Age man domesticated wolves is, I believe, misleading. Wolves do not domesticate. They are one of the most autonomous and independent of animals, which is why you don’t find a wolf act at the circus. It makes far more sense that the first wild and willing canids domesticated by man were already dogs and that they evolved from ancient wolves, or a common ancestor, well before any association with humans. There are still undomesticated dogs living in the wild today.

Steven Feinberg
Point Richmond, Calif.