PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 7: Populations and Genetics.
Presiding: E Sotka
Monday, August 4. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 106.
Gene flow and dispersal among Florida black bear populations: Evaluating the effectiveness of a regional corridor.
Dixon, Jeremy*,1, McCown, Walter2, Eason, Thomas3, Oli, Madan1, 1 University of Florida, Gainesville, FL2 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gainesville, FL3 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, FL
ABSTRACT- Florida black bears (Ursus americanus floridanus) once occurred throughout Florida, and southern portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Currently, the subspecies primarily occurs in eight distinct and mostly isolated populations throughout Florida. The long-term isolation of these populations could lead to a loss of genetic variation and evolutionary potential and may reduce population viability. The connection of populations with regional corridors has been proposed as a way to mitigate the effects of isolation by increasing dispersal and gene flow. One such potential corridor, located between the Ocala and Osceola bear populations, was evaluated for effectiveness using non-invasive hair snares and molecular analysis. Within the corridor, grids with cells measuring 20 km2 were overlaid on potential areas, and at least one hair snare was placed within each cell. From May to November of 2002, 295 black bear hair samples at 33 hair snare sites were collected. Additionally, samples were collected opportunistically from existing fences and bears killed on roads. Hair samples were analyzed using microsatellite analysis and provided 12-loci genotypes. Using population assignment tests, preliminary analyses revealed that black bears sampled from the Ocala-Osceola corridor were genetically consistent with bears from the Ocala population, indicating a total one-way movement of bears from the Ocala population. However, more samples and analyses will be needed to fully characterize the role of the corridor in facilitating dispersal and gene flow between the two populations. Conservation implications of preliminary findings will be discussed.
Key words: population assignment tests, Ursus americanus floridanus, regional corridor