AI Article Synopsis
- Captive-breeding programs can help save endangered species, but inbreeding can lead to fitness issues in small populations with few original individuals.
- The study focused on the endangered red wolf, which was preserved with only 14 founders, revealing that over 30 years, inbreeding increased while litter size decreased.
- Even though inbreeding affected litter size negatively, it didn’t seem to limit the overall survival of the red wolf population, indicating that more research is needed as inbreeding rises.
Article Abstract
Captive-breeding programs have been widely used in the conservation of imperiled species, but the effects of inbreeding, frequently expressed in traits related to fitness, are nearly unavoidable in small populations with few founders. Following its planned extirpation in the wild, the endangered red wolf (Canis rufus) was preserved in captivity with just 14 founders. In this study, we evaluated the captive red wolf population for relationships between inbreeding and reproductive performance and fitness. Over 30 years of managed breeding, the level of inbreeding in the captive population has increased, and litter size has declined. Inbreeding levels were lower in sire and dam wolves that reproduced than in those that did not reproduce. However, there was no difference in the inbreeding level of actual litters and predicted litters. Litter size was negatively affected by offspring and paternal levels of inbreeding, but the effect of inbreeding on offspring survival was restricted to a positive influence. There was no apparent relationship between inbreeding and method of rearing offspring. The observable effects of inbreeding in the captive red wolf population currently do not appear to be a limiting factor in the conservation of the red wolf population. Additional studies exploring the extent of the effects of inbreeding will be required as inbreeding levels increase in the captive population.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/zoo.20262 | DOI Listing |
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