Severe inbreeding depression in a wild wolf<i>Canis lupus</i>population

Liberg, Olof; Andrén, Henrik; Pedersen, Hans Chr.; Sand, Håkan; Sejberg, Douglas; Wabakken, Petter; Åkesson, Mikael; Bensch, Staffan

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2004.0266

Cited by 212 publications

(273 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Both incestuous mating and the presence of unrelated adoptees have been documented in other wolf populations (e.g. Jędrzejewski et al 2005;Liberg et al 2005;vonHoldt et al 2008;Rutledge et al 2010). Incestuous mating may occur if a breeding individual is lost close to the breeding season (Liberg et al 2005;vonHoldt et al 2008), while adoption can occur outside the breeding season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jędrzejewski et al 2005;Liberg et al 2005;vonHoldt et al 2008;Rutledge et al 2010). Incestuous mating may occur if a breeding individual is lost close to the breeding season (Liberg et al 2005;vonHoldt et al 2008), while adoption can occur outside the breeding season. Jędrzejewski et al (2005) documented both incestuous mating and a presence of an unrelated, non-breeding male in one pack in an intensely hunted population.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Continued hunting pressure with kin structure disruption and inflated inbreeding levels can be expected to decrease heterozygosity in the future (Nilsson 2004;Liberg et al 2005;Temple and Terry 2007). This was observed in Finland, where the expanding wolf population under moderate hunting pressure (*15 % of the census population) experienced sudden demographic decline combined with a significant loss of heterozygosity (Jansson et al 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unregulated hunting and genetic recovery from a severe population decline: the cautionary case of Bulgarian wolves

et al. 2013

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European wolf (Canis lupus) populations have suffered extensive decline and range contraction due to anthropogenic culling. In Bulgaria, although wolves are still recovering from a severe demographic bottleneck in the 1970s, hunting is allowed with few constraints. A recent increase in hunting pressure has raised concerns regarding long-term viability. We thus carried out a comprehensive conservation genetic analysis using microsatellite and mtDNA markers. Our results showed high heterozygosity levels (0.654, SE 0.031) and weak genetic bottleneck signals, suggesting good recovery since the 1970s decline. However, we found high levels of inbreeding (F IS = 0.113, SE 0.019) and a N e /N ratio lower than expected for an undisturbed wolf population (0.11, 95 % CI 0.08-0.29). We also found evidence for hybridisation and introgression from feral dogs (C. familiaris) in 10 out of 92 wolves (9.8 %). Our results also suggest admixture between wolves and local populations of golden jackals (C. aureus), but less extensive as compared with the admixture with dogs. We detected local population structure that may be explained by fragmentation patterns during the 1970s decline and differences in local ecological characteristics, with more extensive sampling needed to assess further population substructure. We conclude that high levels of inbreeding and hybridisation with other canid species, which likely result from unregulated hunting, may compromise long-term viability of this population despite its current high genetic diversity. The existence of population subdivision warrants an assessment of whether separate management units are needed for different subpopulations. Our study highlights conservation threats for populations with growing numbers but subject to unregulated hunting.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unregulated hunting and genetic recovery from a severe population decline: the cautionary case of Bulgarian wolves

et al. 2013

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“…This fitness decrease is for the greater part thought to be caused by fixation of recessive detrimental variation (Hedrick 1994;Charlesworth and Charlesworth 1999;Wang et al 1999) thereby significantly elevating the extinction risk of populations (Newman and Pilson 1997;Saccheri et al 1998;Bijlsma et al 2000). Although the importance of inbreeding depression in conservation biology has been hotly debated (Caughley 1994;Hedrick et al 1996), there is now increasing evidence that inbreeding depression is present in population of many wild living species (Keller and Waller 2002) and does significantly contribute to the extinction risk of populations (Hedrick 1995;Spielman et al 2004;Liberg et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of genetic rescue in inbred Drosophila melanogaster populations

et al. 2010

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Genetic rescue has been proposed as a management strategy to improve the fitness of genetically eroded populations by alleviating inbreeding depression. We studied the dynamics of genetic rescue in inbred populations of Drosophila. Using balancer chromosomes, we show that the force of heterosis that accompanies genetic rescue is large and allows even a recessive lethal to increase substantially in frequency in the rescued populations, particularly at stress temperatures. This indicates that deleterious alleles present in the immigrants can increase significantly in frequency in the recipient population when they are in linkage disequilibrium with genes responsible for the heterosis. In a second experiment we rescued eight inbred Drosophila populations with immigrants from two other inbred populations and observe: (i) there is a significant increase in viability both 5 and 10 generations after the rescue event, showing that the increase in fitness is not transient but persists long-term. (ii) The lower the fitness of the recipient population the larger the fitness increase. (iii) The increase in fitness depends significantly on the origin of the rescuers. The immigrants used were fixed for a conditional lethal that was mildly deleterious at 25°C but lethal at 29°C. By comparing fitness at 25°C (the temperature during the rescue experiment) and 29°C, we show that the lethal allele reached significant frequencies in most rescued populations, which upon renewed inbreeding became fixed in part of the inbred lines. In conclusion, in addition to the fitness increase genetic rescue can easily result in a substantial increase in the frequency of mildly deleterious alleles carried by the immigrants. This can endanger the rescued population greatly when it undergoes recurrent inbreeding. However, using a sufficient number of immigrants and to accompany the rescue event with the right demographic measures will overcome this problem. As such, genetic rescue still is a viable option to manage genetically eroded populations.

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“…captive wolves (Canis lupus), Laikre and Ryman 1991; grey wolves on Isle Royale, Peterson et al 1998; Scandinavian wolves, Liberg et al 2005; Mexican wolves (Canis lupus baileyi), Fredrickson et al 2007). In the case of an isolated and genetically depleted population of grey wolves in Scandinavia, the arrival of one immigrant led to selective outbreeding, which caused an increase in heterozygosity, the introduction of new alleles, and an exponential population growth (Vilà et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in the Greater Limpopo transfrontier conservation area

et al. 2016

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The Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) is one of the last refuges for the endangered African wild dog and hosts roughly one-tenth of the global population. Wild dogs in this area are currently threatened by human encroachment, habitat fragmentation and scarcity of suitable connecting habitat between protected areas. We derived genetic data from mitochondrial and nuclear markers to test the following hypotheses: (i) demographic declines in wild dogs have caused a loss of genetic variation, and (ii) Zimbabwean and South African populations in the GLTFCA have diverged due to the effects of isolation and genetic drift.Genetic patterns among five populations, taken with comparisons to known information, illustrate that allelic richness and heterozygosity have been lost over time, presumably due to effects of inbreeding and genetic drift. 1Genetic structuring has occurred due to low dispersal rates, which was most apparent between Kruger National Park and the Zimbabwean Lowveld. Immediate strategies to improve gene flow should focus on increasing the quality of habitat corridors between reserves in the GLTFCA and securing higher wild dog survival rates in unprotected areas, with human-mediated translocation only undertaken as a last resort.

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Severe inbreeding depression in a wild wolfCanis lupuspopulation

Cited by 212 publications

References 25 publications

Unregulated hunting and genetic recovery from a severe population decline: the cautionary case of Bulgarian wolves

Unregulated hunting and genetic recovery from a severe population decline: the cautionary case of Bulgarian wolves

Dynamics of genetic rescue in inbred Drosophila melanogaster populations

Genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in the Greater Limpopo transfrontier conservation area

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