{"id":556362,"date":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/?p=556362"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","slug":"nearly-half-of-italys-wolves-are-part-dog-now-thanks-to-hybridization-is-that-a-threat-to-the-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/?p=556362","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Half of Italy’s Wolves Are Part Dog Now, Thanks to Hybridization. Is That a Threat to the Species?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wolf-dog hybrids are growing far more common in Italy, raising scientists\u2019 concerns for the future of the wolves<\/h2>\n
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Gennaro Tomma, bioGraphic<\/p>\n

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About 47 percent of wolves in Italy are considered wolf-dog hybrids, according to a recent genetic analysis.
\n Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH \/ Shutterstock<\/span>
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Between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago, a now-extinct population of wolves evolved into dogs, with a little help from humans. Today\u2014at least in Italy, which hosts one of Europe\u2019s largest wolf populations\u2014genes are flowing in the opposite direction. Recent genetic testing suggests that, particularly in the country\u2019s central and southern regions, nearly half of the wild wolves (Canis lupus<\/em>) are actually wolf-dog hybrids.<\/p>\n

That represents a massive shift from the 1970s, when Luigi Boitani, now the chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, discovered the country\u2019s first known wolf-dog hybrid.<\/p>\n

The 1970s were a period of transition for Italy\u2019s wolves. At the time, the population was coming out of a tailspin. New laws and conservation efforts were designed to encourage wolves to recolonize habitat from which they\u2019d been extirpated. But the landscape, and its inhabitants, had changed. Wild countryside had given way to rampant urbanization, and Italy\u2019s central and southern regions\u2014where wolves began recovering first\u2014hosted high numbers of free-ranging dogs. It didn\u2019t take long for the wolves to begin rubbing shoulders (and more) with the local canines.<\/p>\n

Decades later, Rita Lorenzini, a biologist and director of Italy\u2019s Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lazio and Tuscany, worked with her team to analyze hundreds of DNA samples collected from a region spanning from Bologna down to the toe of Italy\u2019s boot. Their analysis, published in January in the journal Biological Conservation, reveals just how close the two canid species have become.<\/p>\n

Lorenzini\u2019s research looked at genetic material collected from 748 wolves that had been found dead between 2020 and 2024, and 26 more that had been collected between 1993 and 2003. The team found that 47 percent were wolf-dog hybrids. And while some of these animals are the descendants of hybridization events that took place generations ago, others are more recent crosses, showing that hybridization is still occurring.<\/p>\n

Hybrids are not easy to spot. While some people suggest wolf-dog hybrids have distinctive physical features, such as darker fur than non-hybrid wolves, Paolo Ciucci, a biologist at Sapienza University of Rome who worked with Lorenzini on the recent study, says scientific evidence of these visual differences is lacking and that genetic analysis remains the most reliable way to identify a hybrid.<\/p>\n

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Wolf-dog hybrids arise when a wolf\u2014typically a female\u2014breeds with a domesticated dog. Around the world, the vast majority of domesticated dogs are actually free-ranging.<\/p>\n

Alberto Tivoli<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the extremely high presence of wolf-dog hybrids in central and southern Italy, Ciucci says, represents a threat to the future of the country\u2019s wolves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that a wolf living in a healthy, stable pack in the wild would reproduce with a free-ranging dog, Ciucci explains. Those wolves are more likely to see a dog as competition, or even as prey. But when the pack structure falls apart and female wolves find themselves alone in an area filled with free-ranging dogs, the dynamic can change.<\/p>\n

While Italy hosts nearly 3,300 of Europe\u2019s roughly 21,500 wolves, the fact that so many are actually dog hybrids poses a silent danger, Ciucci says. Italy\u2019s wolves might be close to a point of no return that experts call \u201cgenetic swamping,\u201d <\/em>in which the wolves\u2019 original gene pool is irreversibly replaced by that of the hybrids. In simple words, it means the wolf\u2014genetically speaking\u2014could disappear.<\/p>\n

In northern Italy, where there are fewer free-ranging dogs, wolf-dog hybrids are much rarer than in the central and southern regions of the country. But that, Lorenzini says, is likely temporary. Wolves can cross vast distances, and hybrids could eventually mix and mingle with wolves in northern Italy, or even across Europe.<\/p>\n

Of course, wolves and domesticated dogs have been breeding\u2014and thus hybridizing\u2014since they first diverged thousands of years ago. In North America, for example, gray wolves with black coloring are believed to be the distant descendants of wolf-dog mixes. Research suggests these canines even picked up some perks from their interspecies mingling. Black wolves are in fact more resistant than their peers to some diseases, such as canine distemper, and they may also be more successful at hunting in forests.<\/p>\n

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Quick fact: Wolves in the United States<\/p>\n

Approximately 5,500 wolves roam the Lower 48 states, with another 8,000 to 11,000 in Alaska.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But what\u2019s happening in Italy is totally different, Lorenzini says, because of the scale and the speed at which it is taking place.<\/p>\n

Astrid Vik Stronen, a geneticist at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia who wasn\u2019t involved in the research, agrees the possible downsides of hybridization outweigh the potential benefits. \u201cOverall,\u201d she says, \u201cI think the main concern is that it would be a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s abundance of wolf-dog hybrids, Ciucci adds, threatens to disrupt the key role wolves play in the ecosystem. Though researchers know little about the ways hybridization affects how wolves function, as it\u2019s difficult to study the animals in the wild, Ciucci says it\u2019s possible that hybridization is driving changes to their physiology and behavior\u2014such as how they hunt, how they find and defend their territory, and how they interact socially.<\/p>\n

To Ciucci, the rampant hybridization is also putting the uniqueness of the species at risk. \u201cThe authenticity of the wolf species [is going] missing, with all its cultural, ecological and evolutionary value.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is something Boitani has been worried about\u2014and has been persistently warning about\u2014since he discovered that first hybrid decades ago. \u201cPerhaps because I\u2019m a bit old fashioned,\u201d Boitani says, \u201cand because I\u2019m attached to the idea of the wolf as I\u2019ve always known it, dreamed it and experienced it \u2026 [but] I oppose the idea that, tomorrow, all Italian wolves will be naturally hybrids.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in <\/em>bioGraphic, an independent magazine about nature and regeneration powered by the California Academy of Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n