Offspring of immigrant wolves are more successful – forskning.se

Natural migration of a few unrelated individuals can have great significance for the inbred Scandinavian wolf population viability. It shows a study of fertility of the offspring of such immigrant individuals, made in wolf research SKANDULV.

The Scandinavian wolf population during the winter of 2016 to approximately 430 individuals, but despite the current population size as it was until 2007 only three wolves managed to contribute genetic material. This resulted in the population until then had very limited genetic variation and extensive inbreeding.

In the winter of 2007/2008, however, had two immigrating individuals reached the Scandinavian wolf population range and received was his partner, with whom they reproduced for the first time the following spring, and for a number of years.

Researchers from the Swedish University of agricultural Sciences, University of Lund, the Norwegian Institute for nature research and the University College of Hedmark has now taken a closer look at what this migration episode may have meant. What researchers found was that the offspring of these immigrant wolves were better than the offspring of the more inbred individuals to find a partner of the opposite sex, and that this pairing often led to new wolf litters. The reason for these improved properties can either be a better survival or a better ability to find and attract a new partner.

This study is one of the first to be able to measure and compare success in reproduction among the first generation offspring of immigrants and thus unrelated individuals in relation to the offspring of the same age from the existing and inbred individuals in a population. The study also shows that the Scandinavian population growth tended to increase after these offspring began to reproduce and thus only a few migrant individuals can contribute with important effects on the viability of small and inbred populations.

more information:
Mikael Åkesson, researcher
Department of ecology, SLU, Grimsö, Sweden
Email: mikael.akesson@slu.se
Phone: + 46 (0) 581 69 73 22
http://www.slu.se/skandulv

Øystein Flagstad, Seniorforsker
NINA, Trondheim, Norway
Email : oystein.flagstad@nina.no
Phone: +47917 18 309

the scientific article in Molecular Ecology
Genetic rescue in a Severely inbred wolf population. Mikael Åkesson, Olof Liberg, Håkan Sand, Petter Wabakken, Staffan Bensch & amp; Øystein Flagstad. Molecular Ecology. DOI: 10.1111 / mec.13797