Is incest common in gray wolf packs? |
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| Authors: | Smith Deborah; Meier Thomas; Geffen Eli; Mech L David; Burch John W; Adams Layne G; Wayne Robert K |
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| Institution: | aDepartment of Biology, University of California Los Angeles, CA 900095, USA
bDenali National Park and Preserve PO Box 9, Denali Park, AK 99755, USA
cInstitute for Nature Conservation Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel
dU.S.National Biological Service, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Laurel, MD 20708, USA
eNational Biological Service, Alaska Science Center 1011 E.Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA |
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| Abstract: | Wolf packs generally consist of a breeding pair and their maturingoffspring that help provision and protect pack young. Becausethe reproductive tenure in wolves is often short, reproductivelymature offspring might replace their parents, resulting in siblingor parent-offspring matings. To determine the extent of incestuouspairings, we measured relatedness based on variability in 20microsatellite loci of mated pairs, parent-offspring pairs,and siblings in two populations of gray wolves. Our 16 sampledmated pairs had values of relatedness not overlapping thoseof known parent-offspring or sibling dyads, which is consistentwith their being unrelated or distantly related. These resultssuggest that full siblings or a parent and its offspring rarelymate and that incest avoidance is an important constraint ongray wolf behavioral ecology |
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| Keywords: | Canis hipus gray wolves inbreeding incest microsatellites |
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