P18-FR-5099 - Los lobos a través del espacio y el tiem

The current populations of gray wolves in Iberia and golden wolves in Morocco have survived intense human persecution in the last few hundred years, land use changes associated with the development of agriculture and pastoralism in the last thousands of years, and climate change over the last tens of thousands of years. These important changes may have impacted these two populations differently, and in more recent times, may have impacted northern and southern Iberain wolves differently as well. These kinds of changes can impact population sizes, population connectivity which is associated with dispersal, and also the possible impact of hybridization and introgression of genetic material from other species (such as domestic dogs). Here we use genomic technology to update methods associated with genetic analyses of feces, and whole genome sequencing from recent, historic and ancient material to test the hypothesis that changes in population size of wolves caused by changes in climate, land use and direct persecution through time has caused changes in genetic diversity, connectivity, and levels of hybridization, with opposite trends in Iberian grey wolves and Moroccan golden wolves. These contrasting trends may have resulted in the extinction of the Sierra Morena wolf populations in the last years, and the study of the changes in this population through time offer the unique opportunity to study the processes
affecting populations on their way to extinction.