pack theory versus timid scavengers

[carmspack]

well the canine genome study does indicate that the wolf is the sole source of our domestic dogs ancestory and that the origin was probably the grey wolf of the mid - east (craddle of civilization) .
I saw an entire program on pbs or somesuch which examined the Iranian (red) (gray) wolf -- I am telling you it could have been a red sable GSD on the screen ! These are not like the heavier set , arctic or north american wolf .

[Blanketback]

Originally Posted by carmspack

I saw an entire program on pbs or somesuch which examined the Iranian (red) (gray) wolf -- I am telling you it could have been a red sable GSD on the screen !

I wonder if the color has any significance? Think about it - it's always the red squirrels that people seem to dislike the most, because they're the ones chewing through screens at the cottage or getting into peoples' sheds. And I'm not even going to start about what they say about redheads, lol! But I've always liked the midden heap theory. Maybe they did evolve that way because they were bolder than all the rest, not timid at all, but the opposite.

[huntergreen]

on one of the history channels, there was a show about domesticating minks, the ones that became more dog like actually changed in appearance. some might conclude that the early wolves that came closer to early man received more scraps of food, ate better and became less fearful. these then bred with similar wolves and began to change into dogs. some have also theorized that these early dogs acted as a warning system alerting to dangers in the dark, large animals and other threats. the relationship became symbiotic allowing both early man and dog to survive easier. s for pack or scavenger? i would think elements of both.

[carmspack]

from what I read the Iranian wolf was more docile, lived around human communities and " team at UCLA has been working on wolf genomes. Last year, UCLA researchers found that the Middle Eastern wolf populations were a greater source for diversity in domestic dog genes than any other wolf population– which suggested that dogs were first domesticated in the Middle East. "

[Kayos and Havoc]

I find this interesting re: the Iranian Wolf. I spent 6 months in Iraq and those little red wolves lived among us. They were timid but also very tame, accepting food from us. We were warned not to feed them as they were so tame but not domestic. They almost looked like coyote/GSD crosses.