Author:
Cavedon Maria,Neufeld Lalenia,Finnegan Laura,Hervieux Dave,Michalak Anita,Pelletier Agnes,Polfus Jean,Schwantje Helen,Skinner Geoff,Steenweg Robin,Thacker Caeley,Poissant Jocelyn,Musiani Marco
Abstract
AbstractConservation breeding programs are increasingly used as recovery actions for wild animals; bringing founders into captivity to rear captive populations for future reintroduction into the wild. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature recommends that founders should come from genetically close populations and should have sufficient genetic diversity to avoid mating among relatives. Genomic data are highly informative for evaluating founders due to their high resolution and ability to capture adaptive divergence, yet, their application in that context remains limited. Woodland caribou are federally listed as a Species at Risk in Canada, with several populations facing extirpation, such as those in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia (BC). To prevent local extirpation, Jasper National Park (JNP) is proposing a conservation breeding program. We examined single nucleotide polymorphisms for 144 caribou from 11 populations encompassing a 200,0002 km area surrounding JNP to provide information useful for identifying appropriate founders for this program. We found that this area likely hosts a caribou metapopulation historically characterized by high levels of gene flow, which indicates that multiple sources of founders would be appropriate for initiating a breeding program. However, population structure and adaptive divergence analyses indicate that JNP caribou are closest to populations in the BC Columbia range, which also have suitable genetic diversity for conservation breeding. We suggest that collaboration among jurisdictions would be beneficial to implement the program to promote recovery of JNP caribou and possibly other caribou populations in the surrounding area, which is strategically at the periphery of the distribution of this endangered species.
Funder
Alberta Conservation Association
Parks Canada Agency
Environment and Climate Change Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service
Governments of British Columbia
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Alberta Innovates
Alberta Upstream Petroleum Research Fund
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance
Conoco-Phillips
Exxon
Teck Resources
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Genetics,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
1 articles.
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