The Sicilian Wolf: Genetic Identity of a Recently Extinct Insular Population
Historically, many local grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations have undergone substantial reductions
in size or become extinct. Among these, the wolf population once living in Sicily, the largest island
in the Mediterranean Sea, was completely eradicated by human activity in the early decades of the
20th century. To gain a better understanding of the genetic identity of the Sicilian wolf, we used
techniques for the study of ancient DNA to analyze the mitochondrial DNA of six specimens stored
in Italian museums. We were able to amplify a diagnostic mtDNA fragment of the control region
(CR) in four of the samples. Two of the samples shared the same haplotype, differing by two substitutions
from the currently most diffused Italian wolf haplotype (W14) and one substitution from
the only other Italian haplotype (W16). The third sample showed a previously unreported wolf-like
haplotype, and the fourth a haplotype commonly found in dogs. All of the wolf haplotypes analyzed
in this study belonged to the mitochondrial haplogroup that includes haplotypes detected in all the
known European Pleistocene wolves and in several modern southern European populations.
Unfortunately, this endemic island population, which exhibited unique mtDNA variability, was
definitively lost before it was possible to understand its taxonomic uniqueness and conservational
value.