Genetic variation in an isolated brown bear population of the Western Carpathians was studied by electrophoretic analysis of 51 presumptive allozyme loci. In spite of a severe population bottleneck at the beginning of the 1930s (40 survivors), average heterozygosity (H=5.3%) was within the range commonly found in mammals and the mean number of alleles per polymorphic locus (Ap=3, over five polymorphic loci) was very high. Possible reasons for the maintenance of high allelic variation are discussed.
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Hartl, G.B., Hell, P. Maintenance of high levels of allelic variation in spite of a severe bottleneck in population size: the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the Western Carpathians. Biodivers Conserv 3, 546–554 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115160
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115160