How much gene flow is needed to avoid inbreeding depression in wild tiger populations?

ABSTRACT: The number and size of tiger populations continue to decline owing to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and poaching of tigers and their prey. As a result, tiger populations have become small and highly structured. Current populations have been isolated since the early 1970s or for approximately seven generations. The objective of this study is to explore how inbreeding may be affecting the persistence of remaining tiger populations and how dispersal, either natural or artificial, may reduce the potentially detrimental effect of inbreeding depression. We developed a tiger simulation model and used published levels of genetic load in mammals to simulate inbreeding depression. Following a 50 year period of population isolation, we introduced one to four dispersing male tigers per generatio

SUBMITTER: Kenney J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4100497 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature