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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on March 9, 2007
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arm010
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Inbreeding is reduced by female-biased dispersal and mating behavior in Ethiopian wolves

Deborah A. Randalla, John P. Pollingerb, Robert K. Wayneb, Lucy A. Tallentsa, Paul J. Johnsona and David W. Macdonalda

a Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney OX13 5QL, UK b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Address correspondence to D.A. Randall. E-mail: deborahrandall{at}fzs.org.


  Abstract

Molecular tools have enabled wildlife researchers to obtain accurate information on the kinship, mating behavior, and dispersal of individuals. We genotyped 192 Ethiopian wolves (n = 29 packs) in the Bale Mountains for 17 microsatellite loci to 1) elucidate kinship within and between packs, 2) assess parentage of pups, and 3) evaluate whether inbreeding is avoided by dispersal and/or mating behavior. Mean pairwise relatedness within packs (R = 0.39) was significantly greater than that estimated from random assignment of individuals to packs. However, breeding pairs were most often unrelated, suggesting that female-biased dispersal reduces inbreeding. We assigned maternity to 49 pups and paternity to 47 pups (n = 12 litters) using a combination of exclusion, likelihood analyses (using CERVUS software), and sibship reconstruction. Multiple paternity occurred in 33% of litters; extrapack paternity accounted for 28% of all resolved paternities, occurring in 50% of litters. We found no evidence that extrapack copulations reduce inbreeding; however, more detailed analyses may elucidate the effect of recent population declines and demographic disturbances due to recurring disease outbreaks. The adaptive advantages of female-biased dispersal and the observed mating system are discussed in relation to Ethiopian wolf sociobiology and ecology.

Key words: canids, CERVUS, dispersal, EPC, kinship, microsatellites, paternity.

Received 5 August 2006; revised 11 January 2007; accepted 3 February 2007.


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