Photo's courtesy of...    Anna Bratton and the Colombian Park Zoo Lafayette, IN

    Because they have been considered "just" feral domestic dogs, little scientific research has been done on NGSDs. What has been done invariably demonstrates their uniqueness. In 1976, V. Simonsen published results of his study of canid blood enzymes, in which he found that the NGSD has two proteins that are different from those of jackals, wolves and domestic dogs but identical to those of the coyote. In 1992 R. Wayne, et. al., reported that the NGSD had a unique mitochondrial DNA sequence compared to the 33 dog breeds studied.