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Genetic diversity in a reintroduced swift fox population

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Abstract

Swift fox (Vulpes velox) were historically distributed in southwestern South Dakota including the region surrounding Badlands National Park (BNP). The species declined during the mid-1800s, largely due to habitat loss and poisoning targeted at wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans). Only a small population of swift foxes near Ardmore, which is located in Fall River County, South Dakota, persisted. In 2003, a reintroduction program was initiated at BNP with swift foxes translocated from Colorado and Wyoming. Foxes released in the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 were translocated from Colorado (BNP-Colorado) whereas in 2006, released foxes were translocated from Wyoming (BNP-Wyoming). Our objective was to evaluate genetic diversity and structure of the restored swift fox population in the area surrounding BNP compared to source fox populations in an area of Colorado and Wyoming, as well as the local swift fox population neighboring BNP near Ardmore in Fall River County, South Dakota. A total of 400 swift foxes (28 released in 2003, 28 released in 2004, 26 released in 2005, 26 released in 2006, 252 wild-born foxes, 40 individual foxes from the Ardmore area of South Dakota) was genotyped using twelve microsatellite loci. We report mean gene diversity values of 0.778 (SD = 0.156) for the BNP-Colorado population, 0.753 (SD = 0.165) for the BNP-Wyoming population, 0.751 (SD = 0.171) for the BNP population, and 0.730 (SD = 0.166) for the Fall River population. We also obtained Fst values ranging from 0.014 to 0.029 for pair-wise comparisons of fox populations (BNP, Fall River, BNP-Wyoming, BNP-Colorado). We conclude that the reintroduced fox population around BNP has high genetic diversity comparable to its source populations in Colorado and Wyoming. Although genetic diversity indicates that the reintroduction was successful, additional time is necessary to fully evaluate long-term genetic maintenance and interconnectivity among these populations.

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Acknowledgments

Our study was funded by the National Park Service. We appreciate the support provided by the Department of Natural Resource Management (formerly the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences) at South Dakota State University and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks for providing administrative support for the project. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Special thanks to T. W. Grovenburg for assistance with figure creation. Also thanks to D. Schwalm for her help with PCR and K. Gedye for her help with the sequencer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Box 2140B, NPB Room 138, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Indrani Sasmal, Jonathan A. Jenks & Shubham Datta

  2. Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA

    Lisette P. Waits

  3. Animal and Range Sciences Department, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, 57006, USA

    Michael G. Gonda

  4. Wind Cave National Park, 26611 U.S. Highway 385, Hot Springs, SD, 57747, USA

    Greg M. Schroeder

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  1. Indrani Sasmal
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  2. Jonathan A. Jenks
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Correspondence to Indrani Sasmal.

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Sasmal, I., Jenks, J.A., Waits, L.P. et al. Genetic diversity in a reintroduced swift fox population. Conserv Genet 14, 93–102 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-012-0429-8

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