Historical Invasion Records Can Be Misleading: Genetic Evidence for Multiple Introductions of Invasive Raccoons (Procyon lotor) in Germany.

ABSTRACT: Biological invasions provide excellent study systems to understand evolutionary, genetic and ecological processes during range expansions. There is strong evidence for positive effects of high propagule pressure and the associated higher genetic diversity on invasion success, but some species have become invasive despite small founder numbers. The raccoon (Procyon lotor) is often considered as a typical example for such a successful invasion resulting from a small number of founders. The species' largest non-native population in Germany is commonly assumed to stem from a small number of founders and two separate founding events in the 1930s and 1940s. In the present study we analyzed 407 raccoons at 20 microsatellite loci sampled from the invasive range in Western Europe to test if these a

SUBMITTER: Fischer ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4422738 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature