President: Giampaolo Pioli    |    Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara
English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro 

Subscribe for only $6/Year
  • Login
  • Register
VNY La Voce di New York

The First Italian English Digital Daily Newspaper in the US

  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Entertainment
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY
  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Entertainment
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY La Voce di New York
No Result
View All Result
in
News
December 1, 2022
in
News
December 1, 2022
0

The Lone Wolf of Yellowstone Park: Is Risky Behavior Caused by a Parasite?

Scientists make a surprising discovery about mind-controlling toxoplasmosis

Alex ChristiansenbyAlex Christiansen
The Lone Wolf of Yellowstone Park: Is Risky Behavior Caused by a Parasite?
Time: 2 mins read

 

The gray wolf almost went extinct some decades ago. But they were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and scientists have been monitoring them ever since.

Pack behavior is observed via trail cameras and plane flyovers, and about a quarter of the wolves wear radio tracking collars and undergo blood tests. Wolves are pack animals, living in family groups led by a matriarch and her mate. Some wolves stay with their pack their whole lives, helping hunt and raise pups like aunts and uncles as they mature, but others split off to find a mate of their own and start their own packs giving rise to the expression, “lone wolf”.

Scientist have wondered why some wolves simply break off from the pack. They conclude generally that there are lots of factors that go into these types of behavior, such as quirks of personality and family relationships established as pups, but new scientific findings revealed a surprising influence on wolf-pack dynamics: a mind-controlling parasite that makes a gray wolf engage in riskier behavior.

Researchers found that gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park that are infected with a parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii were more likely to leave the group of wolves they were born into or become a pack leader.

The startling revelations could change scientists’ understanding of wolf-pack dynamics and improve conservation efforts for an apex predator that plays a major role in the health of its mountain ecosystem.

The parasites enter the intermediate host’s brain and muscle tissue and change its behavior. The mechanism isn’t yet clear to researchers, but the phenomenon is most well known in rodents: Mice infected with T. gondii seem to lose their inherent fear of cats and no longer avoid the scent of cat urine, studies have shown. These daredevil mice make an easy meal for a cat, and in eating them, the newly infected feline unwittingly sets the process in motion once again. And now, a recent study in the journal Communications Biology has shown the first evidence of T. gondii’s effect on gray wolves.

A wolf puts itself in danger when it leaves its family and goes off to join or form a new pack, so the researchers looked back on a quarter century’s worth of records of wolf dispersal and pack leadership, linked with blood test results from all the wolves in the study.

The study team found something startling: “A wolf that is positive for toxo is 11 times more likely to disperse than a wolf that’s negative,” said wildlife biologist Kira Cassidy, a research associate at the Yellowstone Wolf Project and co-lead author of the study. “And then becoming a pack leader was even more of an impact: A wolf that was positive was 46 times more likely to become a pack leader than a wolf that was negative.”

Given the behavioral patterns associated with T. gondii in other animals, the researchers suspect that toxo is responsible for these trends. “We assume that there might be some sort of link between boldness caused from toxo and being more willing to leave your home range and go to another wolf’s territory and possibly be killed,” Meyer said—a thought-provoking conclusion that might apply to human behavior as well.

 

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Alex Christiansen

Alex Christiansen

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Research on the Most Durable Marriage: Marry Young and Skip Cohabitation   

Research on the Most Durable Marriage: Marry Young and Skip Cohabitation  

byAlex Christiansen
Italia e USA uniti nella ricerca sull’Intelligenza Artificiale per la sanità

Italian AI CEO: “Technology Is Close to Reaching Human Skill with Language”

byAlex Christiansen

A PROPOSITO DI...

Tags: grey wolvesparasitic infectiontoxoplasmosisYellowstone National Park
Previous Post

Precious and Rare “Lysippos of Fano Statue” in Getty Villa: The Efforts to Repatriate it

Next Post

Hawaii’s Emergency: Mauna Loa and Kilauea Now Erupting Simultaneously

Discussion about this post

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Faith Dominates Political Rhetoric But Churches Close as People Stop Attending

Faith Dominates Political Rhetoric But Churches Close as People Stop Attending

byAlex Christiansen
China’s Population Continues to Shrink, Portending a Change in the World Order

China’s Population Continues to Shrink, Portending a Change in the World Order

byAlex Christiansen

Latest News

Al Calandra italoamericani e italiani si confrontano per cercare l’unione

Al Calandra italoamericani e italiani si confrontano per cercare l’unione

byLa Voce di New York
Love’s faithful, A Polypthych in Seven Panels for Dante Alighieri

Love’s faithful, A Polypthych in Seven Panels for Dante Alighieri

byAlessandro Cassin

New York

Al Calandra italoamericani e italiani si confrontano per cercare l’unione

Al Calandra italoamericani e italiani si confrontano per cercare l’unione

byLa Voce di New York
Love’s faithful, A Polypthych in Seven Panels for Dante Alighieri

Love’s faithful, A Polypthych in Seven Panels for Dante Alighieri

byAlessandro Cassin

Italiany

La crisi dell’istruzione nel mondo: 2/3 dei bambini non capiscono cosa leggono

Master Fondazione Italia-Usa: altre 200 borse di studio “Next Generation”

byLa Voce di New York
World Pasta Day: negli USA sempre più Made in Italy grazie all’ICE

World Pasta Day: negli USA sempre più Made in Italy grazie all’ICE

byNicola Corradi
Next Post
Hawaii’s Emergency: Mauna Loa and Kilauea Now Erupting Simultaneously

Hawaii's Emergency: Mauna Loa and Kilauea Now Erupting Simultaneously

La Voce di New York

President: Giampaolo Pioli   |   Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara   |   English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro

  • New York
    • Eventi
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Voto Estero
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • People
    • Expat
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
    • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • Mediterraneo
  • English
  • Search/Archive
  • About us
    • Editorial Staff
    • President
    • Administration
    • Advertising

VNY Media La Voce di New York © 2016 - 2022
Main Office: 230 Park Avenue, 21floor, New York, NY 10169 | Editorial Office/Redazione: UN Secretariat Building, International Press Corps S-301, New York, NY 10017

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • New York
  • Onu
  • News
    • Elezioni 2022
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • Arts
    • Speciale Venezia
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
    • Cucina Italiana
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • English
    • Arts
    • Business
    • Entertainment
    • Food & Wine
    • Letters
    • Lifestyles
    • Mediterranean
    • New York
    • News
  • Subscribe for only $6/Year

© 2016/2022 VNY Media La Voce di New York

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In
By clicking on "Create my account" or by registering, you accept the and the .

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?