Here's an interesting article I found on the BBC website about the ancient origins of indigenous dog breeds.

I also love the picture of the Huskies.  Great "Move! Get out of the Way!!!" faces.


(Edited because I reflexively thought the caption meant that those huskies were mals. Whoops.)

Those look like huskies to me in the picture, not Mals!

Added: The blue eyes are a givaway!

Oh, duh. Forgot about that!

Definitely huskies, I love Mals, but there is a certain intensity I have only seen in a husky when running, and those dogs have it. Plus yeah, blue eyes.

Whatever happened to journalistic integrity?  

Eh, huskies, malamutes, same difference right?

To be fair, they don't state that the dogs shown in the picture are huskies, but it is implied from the caption.

I pride myself on accuracy, though. I could teach the BBC a thing or two.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1766/20131142.full

Here is the full study. It looks like they studied Mals, which is why the article talks about them, it looks like the article just posted a stock photo of sled dogs. I'm kind of interested in the Canadian Eskimo Dog, they look really cool.

I just checked out the United Kennel Club description of the Canadian Eskimo Dog. Included in disqualifications:

"Ears that are not erect. This is not to be confused with ears that are battle torn."

Battle torn?  

Bar fight.

wpskier222 wrote:

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1766/20131142.full

Here is the full study. It looks like they studied Mals, which is why the article talks about them, it looks like the article just posted a stock photo of sled dogs. I'm kind of interested in the Canadian Eskimo Dog, they look really cool.

I think the study is saying that Malamutes and Siberian Huskies come from a similar ancestor, but the Malamute is somehow different from Sibes and other arctic breeds because of a "total lack of shared haplotypes" (whatever that means, lol)
Still the BBC should make a point to not generalize and instead provide accurate information especially visual information because not may people take the time to read unfortunately.


The Canadian Eskimo is indeed an interesting sled dog! Its sad that they are so rare.

Here is an interesting paragraph I pulled from the article that summarizes the link between all arctic breeds:

Quote :

The studied Arctic American dogs seem to consist of two separate populations. The Alaskan Malamute is thought to descend from dogs bred by the Mahlemut people of the upper-western Alaska. A majority of these dogs carried haplotype A29, which seemingly presents both spacial and temporal clues to the origins of the breed. A29 (absent in Europe) is found among East Asian dogs and, significantly, among Siberian husky, a sled dog originally bred by the Chukchi people on the northeastern tip of Siberia. This indicates genetic links between East Asia, Siberia and Arctic America. A29 was also found in ancient samples from Alaska, indicating the presence of the Alaskan Malamute ancestors in the pre-Columbian era. However, a complicating factor is that Alaskan Malamutes were interbred with Siberian husky in the gold rush era; analyses of additional markers will be necessary to establish how the modern Alaskan Malamutes relates to the dogs of the Mahlemut people. The other modern Arctic breeds (Inuit, Eskimo and Greenland dogs) seem to constitute a separate genetic group, as only 2/38 individuals shared haplotypes with Alaskan Malamutes. The three breeds share a common gene pool including a unique haplotype (A31) found in the majority of individuals. These three breeds, in accordance with the mtDNA data, are often considered a single breed and are thought to descend from sled dogs bred by Thule people, the ancestors of the modern Inuits. This culture developed in coastal Alaska by 1000 years ago and rapidly reached Greenland a few centuries later, having presented the first evidence of consistent use of sled dogs in the Arctic [27].

Great article thanks for the link