The parasite makes wolves more likely to pack leaders

The parasite might cause some wolves to go alone or go alone.

Infected wolves in Yellowstone National Park Toxoplasma gondii make bolder decisions than their infected counterparts, researchers report on November 24 Biology Communications. It increases the risk of ambush for more wolves to leave the pack or become their own leaders.

“Those are two decisions that can benefit wolves or cause wolves to die,” says Connor Meyer, a field biologist at the University of Montana in Missoula. The findings reveal the parasite’s capacity to influence the social fortunes of wolves.

The disease is often thought of as an animal’s fame, especially in the context of its host being killed, Meyer says. We now have evidence that she is infected with some kind of parasite. Toxoplasma – can have quite a major effect on the behavior of the wolf. “

One-celled T. gondii has a path of change of mind. The main victims are cats, which harbor the parasite in the small intestine. The parasite’s offspring are attached to the cat’s feces. The other animals then ingest the parasite, which then manipulates their new group behavior by tweaking certain hormones to make the hosts bolder or more ferocious. Infected mice, for example, fatally lose their fear of cats, allowing the parasite to infect multiple hosts once the mice are consumed.SN: 1/14/20).

In Yellowstone National Park, many wolves are also infected T. gondiirecent research has shown. So Meyer and colleagues wondered if gray wolves (Wolf dog) Parasite to bend the mind in the park anyone of his own.

Wolves were introduced to Yellowstone in 1995. The ongoing study of the park’s pack meant that the researchers had access to about 20 years worth of blood samples, observations and population movements from 229 wolves in the park.

The team covered the wolf’s blood against antibodies T. gondii parasites that detect infection. The researchers also noticed that the wolves left their packs, usually a family unit that ate from the pack and gave birth – or became the pack leader.

“Both of them are sublime wolves,” says Meyer.

Infected wolves were 11 times as likely as uninfected wolves to break away from their pack and find a team, and about 46 times as likely to eventually become leaders. Reports findings T. gondiiappears to have the ability to boost courage across a wide range of life.

The study fills a crucial gap Toxoplasma knowledge pool, says Ajai Vyas, a neurobiologist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who was not involved in the study.

“Most of the previous work was done in the lab,” says Vyas. But there are limitations to that approach, especially in recreating how animals experience the parasite’s effects in nature. This kind of research “has been done almost like the behavior of whales swimming in backyard ponds; [it] It doesn’t work very well.”

Wolves may see increased boldness or a loop, the team suggests. The researchers found that not only do cougars (leopard leopard) carry the parasite in the park, but infection of wolves was greatest when herds of animals were enclosed by the densest collections of cougars. Infected wolf leaders are more likely to put pack members in more dangerous situations when approaching cougars’ territory, making additional infections more likely.

The idea of ​​a feedback-loop “may hold very well,” but more research is needed to confirm it, says Greg Milne, an epidemiologist at the Royal Veterinary College in London, who was not involved in the study. Such research may involve whether infected wolves are more likely to migrate into an area with cougars.

“I think people are just starting to really appreciate that the personality differences of animals have a greater consideration in behavior,” says study coauthor Kira Cassidy, a wildlife biologist at the Yellowstone Wolf Project in Bozeman, Mont. “We are now adding the impact of parasitic behavior to the list.”

Next, the team is interested in exploring the long-term consequences T. gondii and whether infected wolves make better leaders or scatterers than pure wolves.

It’s also not known how the infection impacts survival and reproduction rates, says Cassidy. “Infection can be very harmful in some ways and beneficial in others.”