SREL Reprint #1972

Genetic relationships among alpine ibex Capra ibex populations re-established from a common ancestral source

Kim T. Scribner1 and Michael Stüwe2

1Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29801, USA
2Conservation and Research Center, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, USA

Abstract: Eight populations of Alpine ibex Capra ibex ibex, which were restored from a common ancestral source, were characterized genetically to determine the influence of restoration events (i.e. method of recovery—natural dispersal vs translocation, founding number, population growth, and per-generation effective population size) on population levels of heterozygosity and on the degree of inter-population genetic divergence. Heterozygosities were generally low, and varied among populations (range H=0.023-0.067). Allele frequencies varied greatly among populations at two variable loci (PEP-B, range of common allele 0.98-0.39; Fst=0.177 and LDH-1, range of common allele 1.00-0.00; Fst=0.424), indicating substantial genetic divergence over few generations following population separation. Estimates of expected inter-population variance, calculated based on the number of generations since populations were separated and estimates of effective population size, were similar to observed genetic variance (Fst), calculated from variation in allozyme allele frequencies, suggesting that populations have diverged genetically at a rate consistent with expectations under random genetic drift. Characteristics of recovery events and of subsequent population growth appear to have affected the degree of population divergence in allele frequency but not differences in populations levels of heterozygosity.

Keywords: Alps, ibex, effective population size, genetic variability, restoration, spatial variation

SREL Reprint #1972

Scribner, K.T. and M. Stuwe. 1995. Genetic relationships among alpine ibex Capra ibex populations re-established from a common ancestral source. Biological Conservation 69:137-143.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).