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- Geffen, E., et al.
(författare)
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Kin encounter rate and inbreeding avoidance in canids
- 2011
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 20:24, s. 5348-5358
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mating with close kin can lead to inbreeding depression through the expression of recessive deleterious alleles and loss of heterozygosity. Mate selection may be affected by kin encounter rate, and inbreeding avoidance may not be uniform but associated with age and social system. Specifically, selection for kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance may be more developed in species that live in family groups or breed cooperatively. To test this hypothesis, we compared kin encounter rate and the proportion of related breeding pairs in noninbred and highly inbred canid populations. The chance of randomly encountering a full sib ranged between 1–8% and 20–22% in noninbred and inbred canid populations, respectively. We show that regardless of encounter rate, outside natal groups mates were selected independent of relatedness. Within natal groups, there was a significant avoidance of mating with a relative. Lack of discrimination against mating with close relatives outside packs suggests that the rate of inbreeding in canids is related to the proximity of close relatives, which could explain the high degree of inbreeding depression observed in some populations. The idea that kin encounter rate and social organization can explain the lack of inbreeding avoidance in some species is intriguing and may have implications for the management of populations at risk
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| 2. |
- Berteaux, Dominique, et al.
(författare)
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Arctic and red foxes
- 2011
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Ingår i: Arctic WOLVES. - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada : Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval. ; , s. 76-87
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- Dalén, Love, et al.
(författare)
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Population structure in a critically endangered arctic fox population : does genetics matter?
- 2006
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 15:10, s. 2809-2819
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) in Scandinavia is classified as critically endangered after having gone through a severe decline in population size in the beginning of the 20th century, from which it has failed to recover despite more than 65 years of protection. Arctic foxes have a high dispersal rate and often disperse over long distances, suggesting that there was probably little population differentiation within Scandinavia prior to the bottleneck. It is, however, possible that the recent decline in population size has led to a decrease in dispersal and an increase in population fragmentation. To examine this, we used 10 microsatellite loci to analyse genetic variation in 150 arctic foxes from Scandinavia and Russia. The results showed that the arctic fox in Scandinavia presently is subdivided into four populations, and that the Kola Peninsula and northwest Russia together form a large fifth population. Current dispersal between the populations seemed to be very low, but genetic variation within them was relatively high. This and the relative F-ST values among the populations are consistent with a model of recent fragmentation within Scandinavia. Since the amount of genetic variation is high within the populations, but the populations are small and isolated, demographic stochasticity seems to pose a higher threat to the populations' persistence than inbreeding depression and low genetic variation.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Norén, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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From monogamy to complexity : social organization of arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) in contrasting ecosystems
- 2012
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Ingår i: Canadian Journal of Zoology. - 0008-4301 .- 1480-3283. ; 90:9, s. 1102-1116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Canids display pronounced intraspecific variation in social organization, ranging from single breeding females to large and complex groups. Despite several hypotheses in this matter, little is understood about the ecological factors underlying this flexibility. We have used the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus (L., 1758)) to investigate how contrasting ecosystem conditions concerning resources and predation influence group formation. We predicted that complex groups are more common in resource-rich ecosystems with predators, whereas simple groups occur in more marginal ecosystems without predators. Samples from 54 groups were collected from four populations of arctic foxes with contrasting prey resources and predation and these samples were genotyped in 10 microsatellite loci. We found considerable variation between ecosystems and a significant relationship between resources and formation of complex groups. We conclude that sufficient amounts of food is a prerequisite for forming complex groups, but that defense against predation further increases the benefits of living in larger groups. We present a conceptual model suggesting that a trade-off between the cost of resource depletion and the benefits obtained for guarding against predators explain the differences in social organization. The variable ecology of the arctic foxes makes it is a plausible model species for understanding the connection between ecology and social organization also in other species.
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| 7. |
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