Alexander James Cooke, Cheryl Lohr, W. J. Kennington, Kym M. Ottewell
{"title":"Persistence of social structuring in an arid zone mammal following reintroduction","authors":"Alexander James Cooke, Cheryl Lohr, W. J. Kennington, Kym M. Ottewell","doi":"10.1071/am23051","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Animal social relationships affect animal survival, reproduction, and resource exploitation, and are important to translocation success, but little is known on how they are impacted in reintroduced populations. Here, we investigate the social genetic structure in a reintroduced population of boodies (Bettongia lesueur), one of few social burrowing marsupial species in Australia. Pairwise relatedness of male and female individuals located within seven warrens was determined using 12 microsatellite markers, while mitochondrial DNA was used to identify maternal ancestral lineage. Females were significantly more related within warrens than between warrens, while the difference among males was not significant. We also found evidence of fine-scale genetic structure up to distances of 2 km in females consistent with patterns found in natural populations. Although mean relatedness values were low, our results support the hypothesis that boodies exhibit a female social structure. Multiple maternal lineages were present within all warrens with one exception, suggesting boodies appear to be non-selective when living with individuals from different ancestral backgrounds. We found a significant positive relationship between female sex bias and the number of active entrances in each warren. Together, these results suggest that social structuring should be a key consideration in future reintroductions of boodies.","PeriodicalId":48851,"journal":{"name":"Australian Mammalogy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Mammalogy","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1071/am23051","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ZOOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Animal social relationships affect animal survival, reproduction, and resource exploitation, and are important to translocation success, but little is known on how they are impacted in reintroduced populations. Here, we investigate the social genetic structure in a reintroduced population of boodies (Bettongia lesueur), one of few social burrowing marsupial species in Australia. Pairwise relatedness of male and female individuals located within seven warrens was determined using 12 microsatellite markers, while mitochondrial DNA was used to identify maternal ancestral lineage. Females were significantly more related within warrens than between warrens, while the difference among males was not significant. We also found evidence of fine-scale genetic structure up to distances of 2 km in females consistent with patterns found in natural populations. Although mean relatedness values were low, our results support the hypothesis that boodies exhibit a female social structure. Multiple maternal lineages were present within all warrens with one exception, suggesting boodies appear to be non-selective when living with individuals from different ancestral backgrounds. We found a significant positive relationship between female sex bias and the number of active entrances in each warren. Together, these results suggest that social structuring should be a key consideration in future reintroductions of boodies.
期刊介绍:
Australian Mammalogy is a major journal for the publication of research in all branches of mammalogy. The journal’s emphasis is on studies relating to Australasian mammals, both native and introduced, and includes marine mammals in the Antarctic region. Subject areas include, but are not limited to: anatomy, behaviour, developmental biology, ecology, evolution, genetics, molecular biology, parasites and diseases of mammals, physiology, reproductive biology, systematics and taxonomy.
Australian Mammalogy is for professional mammalogists, research scientists, resource managers, consulting ecologists, students and amateurs interested in any aspects of the biology and management of mammals.
Australian Mammalogy began publication in 1972 and is published on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.