Imperial College London
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DrAurelioMalo

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Honorary Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

aurelio.malo

 
 
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Location

 

Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Eggert:2010:10.2193/2009-231,
author = {Eggert, LS and Powell, DM and Ballou, JD and Malo, AF and Turner, A and Kumer, J and Zimmerman, C and Fleischer, RC and Maldonado, JE},
doi = {10.2193/2009-231},
journal = {Journal of Wildlife Management},
pages = {963--973},
title = {Pedigrees and the Study of Wild Populations: The Horses of Assateague Island National Seashore},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2193/2009-231},
volume = {5},
year = {2010}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Recently, a number of papers have addressed the use of pedigrees in the study of wild populations, highlighting their value in conservation management. We used this approach in our study of the horses (Equus caballus) of Assateague Island National Seashore, one of a small number of free ranging animal populations that have been the subject of long-term studies. This population grew from 28 in 1968 to 175 in 2001, causing negative impacts on the island ecosystem. To minimize these effects, an immunocontraception program was instituted, and numbers are slowly decreasing. However, there is concern that this strategy may negatively affect the genetic health of the herd. We found that while mitochondrial DNA diversity is low, nuclear diversity is comparable to that of established breeds. Genetic data were used to verify and amend maternal pedigrees that had been primarily based on behavioral data. Paternity was inferred using genetic data along with National Park Service records of the historic ranges of stallions. The resulting pedigrees enabled us to examine demography, founder contributions, rates of inbreeding and loss of diversity over recent generations, as well as the level of kinship among horses. We then evaluated the strategy of removing individuals (using non-lethal means) with the highest mean kinship values. While this increased the retained diversity of the founders and decreased the average kinship between individuals, it disproportionately impacted the sizes of the youngest age classes. Our results suggest that a combined strategy of controlled breeding and immunocontraception would be more effective than removing individuals with high mean kinships in preserving the long-term health and viability of the herd.
AU  - Eggert,LS
AU  - Powell,DM
AU  - Ballou,JD
AU  - Malo,AF
AU  - Turner,A
AU  - Kumer,J
AU  - Zimmerman,C
AU  - Fleischer,RC
AU  - Maldonado,JE
DO  - 10.2193/2009-231
EP  - 973
PY  - 2010///
SP  - 963
TI  - Pedigrees and the Study of Wild Populations: The Horses of Assateague Island National Seashore
T2  - Journal of Wildlife Management
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2193/2009-231
UR  - http://si-pddr.si.edu/jspui/bitstream/10088/11132/1/nzp_Eggert_et_al_2010.pdf
VL  - 5
ER  -
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