Offspring survival changes over generations of captive breeding.

ABSTRACT: Conservation breeding programs such as zoos play a major role in preventing extinction, but their sustainability may be impeded by neutral and adaptive population genetic change. These changes are difficult to detect for a single species or context, and impact global conservation efforts. We analyse pedigree data from 15 vertebrate species - over 30,000 individuals - to examine offspring survival over generations of captive breeding. Even accounting for inbreeding, we find that the impacts of increasing generations in captivity are highly variable across species, with some showing substantial increases or decreases in offspring survival over generations. We find further differences between dam and sire effects in first- versus multi-generational analysis. Crucially, our multispecies analys

SUBMITTER: Farquharson KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8144597 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature