In 1995, 14 wolves were released into the wild in Yellowstone National Park
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So there's a clear evolutionary advantage for wolves that do recognize political boundaries. I wonder if that has long-term effects on wolf-pack territories.
Edit: quote from https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm, meant to answer to bombcar who mentioned it
You'd have to calculate out the rewards (is letting all of ones cubs starve in order to avoid a 0.01% chance of getting hunted good?), control for any correlated effects (perhaps respecting political boundaries means being overly wary of Yellowstone humans and thus less food), and also the standard worse-is-better proof-of-fitness games involved in sexual competition (a la peacock plumage).
https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-debunk-myth-yellowstone-wo...
EDIT: And of course saying "deer" instead of "elk." This reads like someone either writing specifically for an audience that doesn't know American wildlife, or someone trying to dodge the plagiarism filter on a term paper.
> An estimated 528 wolves resided in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as of 2015. As of December 2021, there are at least 95 wolves in the park. Eight packs were noted. This count marks a decrease of 23% from 2020 but is close to the previous decade's average end of year count (2010-2019 average = 94.5).
That's more than 14 (digits swapped?), but still not a lot from a genetic health standpoint. Seems like there's some exchange with other populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains, who in turn mate with wolves from Canada, so it might be just fine. But it's a bit weird for the article to even mention the issue, only to then get lost in a tangent about one prevalent mutation.