Genetic Variation in Prosimian Species

Scheffrahn et al. (1998a,b) aimed to outline the possible contributions of genetics to conservation biology: the determination of genetic variation of wild groups and its use as a guideline in breeding programs. Unfortunately, the amount of genetic variation within wild groups of nonhuman primates is rarely known. In particular, this observation holds for prosimians. Average heterozygosity is widely considered to be a good indicator of the magnitude of intraspecific variation. We provide some values of average heterozygosity of wild populations of Otolemur garnettii, Eulemur macaco macaco and E. m. flavifrons.