Table 2.

Comparison of the mating systems of gray wolves and domestic dogs. Data on wolves based on Lehman et al. 1992; Jędrzejewski et al. 2005; vonHoldt et al. 2008; Caniglia et al. 2014; Ausband 2018, 2019; Sidorovich and Rotenko 2019. Data on dogs based on this study

Trait	Grey wolf	Domestic dog
Litter paternity	Single	1–3 fathers
Multiple litters produced by the same parent pair	Frequently	Observed but probably less frequent than in wolves
Group affiliation of parents	The same group, with the exception of “sneaker” males breeding with females from different groups	Can remain in different groups before and after pups’ birth
Multiple breeding females within groups	Rare in stable populations but may be common in growing or heavily hunted populations	Frequent
Retention of adult offspring in natal groups	Frequent	Frequent
Presence of unrelated individuals within groups	Less frequent but not uncommona	Frequent
Maternal and paternal half- sibling relationships	Rare	Frequent
Dispersal among groups within the same area	Frequent	Frequent

^aThis excludes individuals forming the dominant breeding pairs, which are typically unrelated.