Long-term small population size, deleterious variation, and altitude adaptation in the Ethiopian wolf, a severely endangered canid


 Ethiopian wolves, a canid species endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands, have been steadily declining in numbers for decades. Currently, out of 35 extant species, it is now one of the world’s most endangered canids. Most conservation efforts have focused on preventing disease, monitoring movements and behavior, and assessing the geographic ranges of sub-populations. Here, we add an essential layer by determining the Ethiopian wolf’s demographic and evolutionary history using high coverage (∼40X) whole genome sequencing from 10 Ethiopian wolves from the Bale Mountains. We observe exceptionally low diversity and an enrichment of weakly deleterious variants in the Ethiopian wolves in comparison to two North American gray wolf populations and four dog breeds. These patterns are consequences of long-term small population size, rather than recent inbreeding. We infer the demographic history of the Ethiopian wolf and find it to be concordant with historic records and previous genetic analyses, suggesting Ethiopian wolves experienced a series of both ancient and recent bottlenecks, resulting in a census population size of fewer than 500 individuals and an estimated effective population size of approximately 100 individuals. Additionally, long-term small population size may have limited the accumulation of strongly deleterious recessive mutations. Lastly, as the Ethiopian wolves have inhabited high-altitude areas for thousands of years, we searched for evidence of high-altitude adaptation, finding evidence of positive selection at a transcription factor in a hypoxia-response pathway (CREBBP). Our findings are pertinent to continuing conservation efforts and understanding how demography influences the persistence of deleterious variation in small populations.