An ancient breed of “singing dog” has been spotted out in the wild for the first time in fifty years.
This is a remarkable discovery…
These adorable creatures are basically the best things on earth. If you’re ever feeling down in the dumps, a dog is guaranteed to make you feel better.
Whether they’re causing mischief, giving us those puppy eyes when they want a treat, or taking up the entire sofa, many of us couldn’t live without our furry friends.
This is a sad reality for way too many dogs out there.
It is believed that the first-ever breed of dog was a large and toothy canine that lived around 31,700 years ago.
And they were around way before wolves were… we can’t look at pugs the same again!
Wild dogs such as wolves, hyenas, dingos, coyotes, and foxes continue to flourish out in the wild… and they do not make suitable pets.
But a recent discovery has gone and proven experts wrong with a certain breed of wild dog.
Very little is known about these creatures in the wild and there are only 2 photographs of possible wild sightings
According to research published yesterday, August 31, in the journal PNAS, a comparison of DNA with that of the captive singing dogs suggested they have very similar genome sequences and are much more closely linked to each other than any other canine.
The highland wild dogs had a seventy percent genetic overlap with the captive population, which lead to the researchers to believe the highland dogs are the original New Guinea singing dog population – with the difference down to the severe inbreeding of those in captivity due to a lack of new genes.
“The conservation dogs are super inbred,” Elaine Ostrander, senior author of the paper and investigator at the National Institutes of Health, said.
“It started with 8 dogs, and they’ve been bred to each other, bred to each other, and bred to each other for generations – so they’ve lost a lot of genetic diversity.”
“They look most related to a population of conservation biology New Guinea singing dogs that were descended from 8 dogs brought to the United States many, many, many years ago.”
The researchers now hope it will be possible to breed some of the newly discovered wild dogs with the New Guinea singing dogs to help preserve the original breed by generating a true New Guinea singing dog population.
“New Guinea singing dogs are rare,” Ostrander explained.
“They’re exotic. They have this beautiful harmonic vocalization that you don’t find anywhere else in nature, so losing that as a species is not a good thing.”
Keep on reading to learn about the remarkable tortoise who saved his species from extinction by fathering 800 babies…