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Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type

Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear (Ursus americanus) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore how this st...

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Autores principales: Lewis, Tania, Roffler, Gretchen, Crupi, Anthony, Maraj, Ramona, Barten, Neil
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7391538/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32760555
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490
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author Lewis, Tania
Roffler, Gretchen
Crupi, Anthony
Maraj, Ramona
Barten, Neil
author_facet Lewis, Tania
Roffler, Gretchen
Crupi, Anthony
Maraj, Ramona
Barten, Neil
author_sort Lewis, Tania
collection PubMed
description Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear (Ursus americanus) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore how this structure relates to pelage color and landscape features of a recently glaciated and highly fragmented landscape. We used existing radiocollar data to quantify black bear home‐range size within the geographic range of glacier bears. The mean home‐range size of female black bears in the study area was 13 km(2) (n = 11), whereas the home range of a single male was 86.9 km(2). We genotyped 284 bears using 21 microsatellites extracted from noninvasively collected hair as well as tissue samples from harvested bears. We found ten populations of black bears in the study area, including several new populations not previously identified, divided largely by geographic features such as glaciers and marine fjords. Glacier bears were assigned to four populations found on the north and east side of Lynn Canal and the north and west side of Glacier Bay with a curious absence in the nonglaciated peninsula between. Lack of genetic relatedness and geographic continuity between black bear populations containing glacier bears suggest a possible unsampled population or an association with ice fields. Further investigation is needed to determine the genetic basis and the adaptive and evolutionary significance of the glacier bear color morph to help focus black bear conservation management to maximize and preserve genetic diversity.
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spelling pubmed-73915382020-08-04 Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type Lewis, Tania Roffler, Gretchen Crupi, Anthony Maraj, Ramona Barten, Neil Ecol Evol Original Research Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear (Ursus americanus) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore how this structure relates to pelage color and landscape features of a recently glaciated and highly fragmented landscape. We used existing radiocollar data to quantify black bear home‐range size within the geographic range of glacier bears. The mean home‐range size of female black bears in the study area was 13 km(2) (n = 11), whereas the home range of a single male was 86.9 km(2). We genotyped 284 bears using 21 microsatellites extracted from noninvasively collected hair as well as tissue samples from harvested bears. We found ten populations of black bears in the study area, including several new populations not previously identified, divided largely by geographic features such as glaciers and marine fjords. Glacier bears were assigned to four populations found on the north and east side of Lynn Canal and the north and west side of Glacier Bay with a curious absence in the nonglaciated peninsula between. Lack of genetic relatedness and geographic continuity between black bear populations containing glacier bears suggest a possible unsampled population or an association with ice fields. Further investigation is needed to determine the genetic basis and the adaptive and evolutionary significance of the glacier bear color morph to help focus black bear conservation management to maximize and preserve genetic diversity. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7391538/ /pubmed/32760555 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Lewis, Tania
Roffler, Gretchen
Crupi, Anthony
Maraj, Ramona
Barten, Neil
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title_full Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title_fullStr Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title_full_unstemmed Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title_short Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears (Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
title_sort unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: genetic population structure of black bears (ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7391538/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32760555
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490
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