Gene flow in rare Ethiopian wolves

Some 450 Ethiopian wolves, Africa's rarest carnivore species, cling to survival in half a dozen isolated montane pockets in the Ethiopian Highlands. Now a detailed study of Ethiopian wolf samples from current and extinct populations has found there is little gene flow between these remaining populations. Small isolated populations are increasingly at risk of extinction from habitat loss and disease. In a study published in the journal Animal Conservation, WildCRU's Claudio Sillero and colleagues in London and Berlin quantified the genetic diversity, population structure and patterns of gene flow among wild-living Ethiopian wolves and one extinct population. This genetic survey provides much needed information for the future effective management of Ethiopian wolf populations.

The article "Genetic structure and patterns of gene flow among populations of the endangered Ethiopian wolf" appears in Animal Conservation

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00591.x/abstract