Alaskan island cattle evolved DNA unlike most US breeds
Genetic research on cattle from Chirikof Island reveals a unique evolutionary history shaped by isolation and a mix of Siberian Yakut and British ancestry. These feral cattle survived without human intervention, providing a rare case study in natural selection and genetic drift.
Why it matters
Understanding the genetic diversity of isolated populations helps scientists preserve rare breeds and study the effects of environmental adaptation on livestock.
For generations, cattle have roamed Chirikof Island, a remote island in the western Gulf of Alaska where human management became almost irrelevant to their survival. Cut off from the mainland and living in a harsh environment, the animals persisted as a feral population while generations of domesticated cattle elsewhere were shaped by deliberate breeding.A 2016 study published in Heredity, ‘Origins of cattle on Chirikof Island, Alaska, elucidated from genome-wide SNP genotypes,’ by J. E. Decker, J. F. Taylor, J. Kantanen, A. Millbrooke, R. D. Schnabel, L. J. Alexander and M. D. MacNeil used genome-wide genetic data to investigate where these unusual cattle came from and how distinct they had become. The researchers found that the herd was not simply an abandoned American breed.
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