Wolf Growing Extra Tooth in Minnesota Might Be Caused by Inbreeding

A wolf that was being monitored by scientists in Minnesota had an extremely rare occurrence of an extra tooth. Some people are making inbreeding speculations.

While fitting a GPS collar on a young wolf, the Voyageurs Wolf Project, a research organization, made the incredibly rare discovery when they were tracking wolves roaming the Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota.

Pictures posted on social media depict the P2L wolf with its mouth wide open. It shows an additional upper incisor tooth, which wolves use to remove meat from the bone, which can be seen developing directly above the position of the natural one.

Something in the Water

The research team claimed on social media that something must be in the water since wolves are currently developing more teeth.

The Lightfoot pack yearling was the wolf seen with this rare occurrence.

As per Orilla Matters, the Lightfoot pack was named after Gordon Lightfoot in 2019. The pack roams a territory in the heart of the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem in Minnesota.

Around 30 to 50 wolves are living in Voyageurs National Park, distributed among six to nine packs. Since the 1990s, this hasn't changed all that much.

In a social media post, the research project claimed that it had never encountered anything like this before.

Read also: Wildlife Organizations Offer $51k Reward For Leads on Death of 6 Endangered Gray Wolves Poisoned in Washington 

Inbreeding?

Thomas Gable, the project lead of the Voyageurs Wolf Project, said in an interview with Newsweek that they guessed that some people would automatically conclude that a physical anomaly like this resulted from inbreeding. However, they have not found any proof that inbreeding occurs in our region, so there is no proof that this is the case.

To find out if they had ever witnessed anything similar before, the project decided to consult wolf biologists with a history of studying the species for decades.

They all said they had not encountered any cases as such, so the project believes it is reasonable to conclude that this is a fairly uncommon occurrence given the lack of any other instances they are aware of. They wrote on social media that they simply aren't aware of any other instances, even though it almost certainly occurs in other wolves.

The average adult gray wolf has six incisors and about 42 teeth total.

Gable guesses that simply put, this is the outcome of an odd genetic anomaly or mutation. But he made it clear that this was coming from a person who didn't know the solution. It is common for other animals to have extra or supernumerary teeth, and it would seem that wolves occasionally exhibit this trait as well, Newsweek reports.

Voyageurs Wolf Project

The Voyageurs Wolf Project, according to their website, aims to fill one of the most significant gaps in knowledge when it comes to wolf ecology by examining what the animals do in the summer. By fitting the wolves with GPS collars and installing trail cameras, the project keeps track of this. The footage is examined by the research team throughout the year, and it offers information on the lives of the species.

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