Rescue of a Severely Bottlenecked Wolf (Canis Lupus) Population by a Single Immigrant

摘要: The fragmentation of populations is an increasingly important problem in the conservation endangered species. Under these conditions, rare migration events may have effects for rescue small and inbred populations. However, relevance such to genetically depauperate natural not supported by empirical data. We show here that genetic diversity severely bottlenecked geographically isolated Scandinavian population grey wolves (Canis lupus), founded only two individuals, was recovered arrival a single immigrant. Before this immigrant, several generations comprised breeding pack, necessarily involving matings between close relatives resulting subsequent decline individual heterozygosity. With just there evidence increased heterozygosity, significant outbreeding (inbreeding avoidance), rapid spread new alleles exponential growth. Our results imply even interpopulation can lead recovery