Fifty reindeer genomes from six Norwegian herds show a feral population founded about ten generations ago from a Sami herding district now shares more DNA with its wild neighbours than common descent alone would produce, and that excess concentrates in the stretches of genome under selection, which the authors read as wild genes likely helping domestication run partly backwards
A herd of reindeer released from Sami reindeer husbandry in central Norway about fifty years ago has been…