An observation of incest avoidance in Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

• Published in: The Canadian Field-Naturalist
• Main Authors: Mech, L. David, McIntyre, Rick
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club 2024
• Subjects: Canis lupus; Gray Wolf; inbreeding avoidance; incest; reproduction; Behaviour; Yellowstone National Park; gray wolf
• Online Access: https://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn/article/view/2971; https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v137i3.2971

Free-ranging Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) tends to avoid inbreeding, but there is no information about how they manage this avoidance. Our observation of a female wolf in Yellowstone National Park actively rebuffing her father’s sexual advances but then copulating with a distantly related male is the first and only report of one means by which wolf pack members avoid inbreeding.