Genetic diversity and family groups detected in a coyote population with red wolf ancestry on Galveston Island, Texas.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hybridization can be a conservation concern if genomic introgression leads to the loss of an endangered species' unique genome, or when hybrid offspring are sterile or less fit than their parental species. Yet hybridization can also be an adaptive management tool if rare populations are inbred and have reduced genetic variation, and there is the opportunity to enhance genetic variation through hybridization. The red wolf (Canis rufus) is a critically endangered wolf endemic to the eastern United States, where all extant red wolves are descended from 14 founders which has led to elevated levels of inbreeding over time. Red wolves were considered extirpated from the wild by 1980, but before they disappeared, they interbred with encroaching coyotes creating a genetically ad

SUBMITTER: Barnes TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9664737 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature