Prehistoric wolf remains discovered on a remote Baltic island indicate that humans cared for wolves thousands of years before dogs became domesticated, a new study suggests.
The bones, dated to between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, were found in the Stora Förvar cave on the Swedish island of Stora Karlsö. The cave was heavily used by Stone Age and Bronze Age seal hunters and fishers, researchers from Stockholm University said.
Stora Karlsö measures just 2.5 square kilometres and has no native land mammals, leading the scientists to believe the wolves were brought there by people, most likely by boat. DNA analysis of two bones confirmed the animals were wolves, not dogs, and several features suggest close contact with humans.
One wolf appears to have survived with a limb injury that would have made hunting difficult, hinting it was cared for. “The discovery of these wolves on a remote island is completely unexpected,” said Linus Girdland-Flink from the University of Aberdeen, a co-author of the study published in PNAS. “Not only did they have ancestry indistinguishable from other Eurasian wolves, but they seemed to be living alongside humans, eating their food, and in a place they could have only reached by boat.”
The findings indicate that human-wolf relationships were more varied than previously thought. “While we can't rule out that these wolves had low genetic diversity for natural reasons, it suggests that humans were interacting with and managing wolves in ways we hadn't previously considered,” said Anders Bergström from the University of East Anglia, another author. Study co-author Pontus Skoglund from the Francis Crick Institute added: “This is a provocative case that raises the possibility that in certain environments, humans were able to keep wolves in their settlements, and found value in doing so.”
