IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Frankham, R. | |
| Genetic adaptation to captivity in species conservation programs | |
| 2008 Molecular Ecology (17): 325-333 | |
As wild environments are often inhospitable, many species have to be captive-bred to save them from extinction. In captivity, species adapt genetically to the captive environment and these genetic adaptations are overwhelmingly deleterious when populations are returned to wild environments. I review empirical evidence on (i) the genetic basis of adaptivechanges in captivity, (ii) factors affecting the extent of genetic adaptation to captivity, and(iii) means for minimizing its deleterious impacts. Genetic adaptation to captivity is primarilydue to rare alleles that in the wild were deleterious and partially recessive. The extent ofadaptation to captivity depends upon selection intensity, genetic diversity, effective populationsize and number of generation in captivity, as predicted by quantitative genetic theory.Minimizing generations in captivity provides a highly effective means for minimizinggenetic adaptation to captivity, but is not a practical option for most animal species. Populationfragmentation and crossing replicate captive populations provide practical means forminimizing the deleterious effects of genetic adaptation to captivity upon populationsreintroduced into the wild. Surprisingly, equalization of family sizes reduces the rate ofgenetic adaptation, but not the deleterious impacts upon reintroduced populations. Geneticadaptation to captivity is expected to have major effects on reintroduction success for speciesthat have spent many generations in captivity. This issue deserves a much higher prioritythan it is currently receiving. |
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