A new DNA study reveals a previously unidentified North American ‘polar wolf’

The genomes of modern wolves in parts of Greenland and on Canada’s Ellesmere Island indicate they belong to a population that is distinct from other Arctic wolves.

Biologists have long been aware that northeastern Canada and Greenland had been home to two distinct types of Arctic wolf. Now, a comparison of the genomes of Arctic wolves with the genomes of wolves from the rest of North America seems to have put an end to a long-standing discussion about whether groups living on Ellesmere Island and in northern and eastern Greenland should should be considered to make up a third population.