Wolves roaming Bhutan’s rugged high-altitude landscapes have been genetically identified as belonging to the ancient Himalayan wolf lineage, offering new insight into one of the region’s least-understood predators.
The finding comes from the first genetic study of wolves in Bhutan and establishes that the animals inhabiting the country’s mountainous terrain are part of the Himalayan wolf lineage, scientifically known as Canis lupus chanco.
The research provides important genetic evidence about the identity of Bhutan’s wolf population, which survives in remote and difficult-to-access areas of the Himalayas. Until now, little genetic information had been available on wolves occurring within the country.
Himalayan wolves represent an ancient lineage of wolves adapted to life in some of the world’s highest and most demanding environments. Confirming their presence in Bhutan adds an important piece to the scientific understanding of the lineage’s distribution across the Himalayan region.
The findings could also have implications for wildlife conservation. Establishing the genetic identity of a population is an important step towards understanding its distribution, ecological significance and conservation needs, particularly for species inhabiting isolated mountain ecosystems.
Bhutan’s high-altitude landscapes therefore appear to harbour not merely a local population of grey wolves, but members of a distinctive and ancient Himalayan lineage whose evolutionary history is closely connected with the mountains they inhabit.
