Black wolves phasing

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Black wolves phasing

Post by -Wolfdog- » Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:25 pm

Hello, I've seen black wolves who seem to "phase out" into gray at vastly different times. For example, Romeo was an 8 year old wolf who still retained much of his black coat, whereas Cinderella almost looked white despite being originally dark colored.

So my question is whether or not the time at which a wolf "phases out" is genetic. If black wolves have a litter at the age of, say, 5 does this mean their offspring are less likely to gray out early?
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Re: Black wolves phasing

Post by Koa » Mon Feb 21, 2022 4:49 pm

-Wolfdog- wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:25 pm
Hello, I've seen black wolves who seem to "phase out" into gray at vastly different times. For example, Romeo was an 8 year old wolf who still retained much of his black coat, whereas Cinderella almost looked white despite being originally dark colored.

So my question is whether or not the time at which a wolf "phases out" is genetic. If black wolves have a litter at the age of, say, 5 does this mean their offspring are less likely to gray out early?
It can be genetic, yes, but this is not the only factor. Not sure that the age at which black wolves have offspring would have any affect at the degree of graying their offspring experience. See the highlighted part of my answer to a similar question on Discord below.
Koa via Discord wrote:Question: @Wing asks, “I've always wondered about wolves that are actually gray/silver in color, like the new DLC coats with the "half black" coat or the wolves that are black when they are born and then fade to gray over time. I've also heard about "black phase" wolves which are essentially these kinds of wolves that are born black and fade to gray over time. I wonder though, is it possible for a wolf to be born with that sort of half black color and have it not fade? Or for a wolf to be born silvery gray instead of the usual cream/gray/brown mixed coat? Or do they have to age into it always?

Answer: No, they have to age into their adult pelt color. All wolf pups are born with dark fur coats; this is usually a dark gray-brown that is muddied, with no specific markings (although Mech notes that some pups have a little bit of white on their chests on pg. 47 of Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation). Around 8 to 16 weeks of age, adult guard hairs, which determine the color of the wolf’s coat, grow in.

The coat colors of both black and gray wolves can lighten or “phase” into white or silver because of age. However, this does not always explain phasing as wild wolves tend not to live long; some wolves do not get the opportunity to grow old and have their pelts lighten. In an 18-year-long study of North American wolves, stress, trauma and genetics were also found to influence the lightening of wolf coat colors. (“Color patterns among wolves in western North American,” 2002, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3784236 with a summary at https://bit.ly/3i86vPr). In the study, black wolves appeared to be more likely to have a rapidly graying G allele, which means their phasing was more likely the result of genetics and not necessarily of old age. For some black wolves, this meant having a silver pelt as early as 3 or 4 years of age. For gray wolves, their phasing was more likely to be associated with old age— if they lived that long.

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