Male dispersal in the noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula): where are the limits?

ABSTRACT: Studying the dispersal behaviour of small, volant, and nocturnal animals such as microchiropterans with direct methods (banding--recapture, telemetry) is a very difficult task. The development of easily scorable and highly variable genetic markers nowadays allows us to study some aspects of dispersal indirectly, using population genetics. Here, we applied these indirect methods to characterize male dispersal behaviour in a European bat species. The eight microsatellite loci analysed were highly variable in all the nursing colonies assessed (h = 0.63-0.93). Contrary to what we found in the mtDNA, an AMOVA and F-statistics showed that the overall European population structure of the noctule bat was very weak, indicating a high male dispersal rate. Nevertheless, the population was not totally

SUBMITTER: Petit E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1690204 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature