White Wolves Can Stand the Heat

摘要

T.m. anderson etal. report that wolves of the northwestern forest in North America are dark in comparison to the wolves of the tundra ("Molecular and evolutionary history of melanism in North American gray wolves," Reports, 6 March, p. 1339). Anderson et al. suggest in passing that the dark coats might better hide preying wolves in the forest. An alternative adaptive explanation is that in the summer, a black tundra wolf could overheat.