Population genetical study of natural hybridization betweenPapio anubis andP. hamadryas

The natural hybridization betweenPapio anubis andP. hamadryas in central Ethiopia was studied from a population genetical perspective. Studies were made using electrophoretical blood protein variations as markers in order to clarify the genetic relationship between them. A total of 563 samples from ten populations which were collected in the field studies with a socioecologist in 1976 and 1979 were examined for 34 blood protein loci. Ten of the 34 loci showed polymorphism. The Tf, PA-2 and Es were found to be effective for discriminating between the anubis and hamadryas. Genetic variability, hybridization rate, genetic distance, migration rates and correlations between genetical and morphological and between genetical and behavioral indices were computed and analyzed. The results of the present genetic survey revealed that most of the populations from which the author collected blood samples were more or less hybridized. The Nei's (1975) genetic distance between the two species was estimated to be 0.0679 at most. As this value is too small to consider these species as real biological species, it is supposed that the natural hybrid zone is fairly wide and still expanding now. This work was supported in part by Grants in aid for scientific research (Overseas scientific research, 1975) and of the Overseas Special Research Programme of the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University in 1978 by Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.