Beaver (Castor canadensis) are currently the focus of many wetland restoration projects as a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer. This species forms multi-season pair bonds, making sex ratio an especially important consideration for restoration projects. However, beavers lack external sexual dimorphism (with the exception of lactation) and current methods of sex identification have error rates C10%. We improved on previous methods of genetic sex identification for beaver by developing a test that uses a short nuclear fragment in addition to an established Y chromosome-specific sex-determining region (SRY) marker. This method had 100% accuracy with 28 known-sex samples and 95% PCR success with no inconsistencies for 42 hair samples from beavers of unknown sex. We used this test to inform a beaver restoration study and increase the probability of population establishment from translocated animals.
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