{"id":24345,"date":"2023-02-08T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=24345"},"modified":"2023-02-13T10:15:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T09:15:12","slug":"hosts-with-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2023\/02\/08\/hosts-with-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosts with the most"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parasitised wolves are more likely to become leaders of the pack as their behaviour is forced to change <\/p>\n\n

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Grey wolves in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, can be manipulated by parasites <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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Yellowstone: The Art of America.<\/a> <\/em>The role of art in its creation.<\/p>\n\n

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MANY PARASITES MANIPULATE THE behaviour of their hosts to their own advantage. Few, though, help their victims rise up through the social hierarchy. But that is exactly what happens when wolves become infected with a common parasite. <\/p>\n\n

Toxoplasma <\/em>is a single-celled parasite that spreads through contact with the faeces or meat of an infected animal. It can only reproduce sexually in members of the cat family, but can proliferate asexually in most mammals, including humans, where it induces changes in behaviour. \u201cIt seems to mess with hormone levels in the brain, which increases risk-taking behaviour,\u201d says Connor Meyer of the University of Montana. This is thought to increase the chances that an animal will end up being eaten by a cat, which would allow the parasite to complete its life-cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Working in Yellowstone National Park, Meyer, co-lead author of a Communications Biology <\/em>study, found that this approach to life results in Toxoplasma-<\/em>infected wolves being 46 times more likely to become pack leaders compared to uninfected ones. The wolves are not necessarily benefitting from infection: \u201cWhat we don\u2019t yet know is whether they are successful <\/em>pack leaders,\u201d says Meyer. <\/p>\n\n

A gung-ho attitude is also likely to get infected animals into trouble in other ways. \u201cHyenas infected with Toxoplasma <\/em>are more likely to be killed by lions,\u201d says Meyer. Yellowstone doesn\u2019t have any cats big enough to take wolves. But that wasn\u2019t always the case. \u201cA few thousand years ago, we\u2019d have had the North American lion here, so the downsides may have been more obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

SB <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

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Conor Meyer of the University of Montana studies Yellowstone\u2019s wolves<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n

PHOTOS: WOLVES: SUMIO HARADA\/MINDEN\/NATUREPL.COM; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parasitised wolves are more likely to become leaders of the pack as their behaviour is forced to change <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"20","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"20","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_20-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_20-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"March-2023","purple_external_id":"March-2023-20-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"March-2023-20-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087241||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087241||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.501","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.501","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.501","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.501","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-02-07T15:32:48Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"6dac6bf3-c5f7-4dcf-b150-678a72e8bc10","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-02-13T09:15:17Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Abaxr88X3Tc-xUGeKcui8EA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db.jpg",1555,924,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db-300x178.jpg",300,178,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db-768x456.jpg",768,456,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db-1024x608.jpg",800,475,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db-1536x913.jpg",1536,913,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/19d66e5b-a58b-4ce0-804f-fc3953e574db.jpg",1555,924,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Parasitised wolves are more likely to become leaders of the pack as their behaviour is forced to change","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24345"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24946,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24345\/revisions\/24946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}