‘Ghost’ alleles of the Mauritius kestrel

Jim J. Groombridge, Carl G. Jones, Michael W. Bruford and Richard A. Nichols
Additional contact information
Jim J. Groombridge: Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London
Carl G. Jones: Mauritius Wildlife Foundation
Michael W. Bruford: Mauritius Wildlife Foundation
Richard A. Nichols: School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College

Nature, 2000, vol. 403, issue 6770, 616-616

Abstract: Abstract The population of Mauritius kestrels is thought to have recovered from a single wild breeding pair in 19741, when its prospects were considered to be hopeless, to over 200 pairs today2. Here we evaluate the loss of genetic variation that resulted from this bottleneck by typing 12 microsatellite DNA loci in museum skins up to 170 years old and from modern kestrels. We find that ancestral variation was remarkably high and comparable to continental kestrel species. This shows that the unexpected resilience of the population could not have been due either to benefits contributed by an undetected remnant population or to reduction of the inbreeding genetic load by a history of small population size3.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35001148

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