Reversing effects of inbreeding in red foxes

A red fox population in the Lassen Peak region of California is facing inbreeding but is a good candidate for genetic rescue, a conservation tool to reverse the effects of inbreeding depression. In a study published in Molecular Ecology and Evolution, researchers sequenced 28 whole genomes from four species of montane red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), including those in the Pacific mountains, Oregon Cascades, Lassen Cascades, the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains and the Sacramento Valley. They found that the Lassen and Sierra Nevada red fox populations had high rates of inbreeding. The genetic information also showed the Lassen population was likely once connected to the Oregon red foxes. The researchers believe inbreeding happened when populations declined as a result of unregulated trapping. “Not too long ago, this was an abundant, connected, diverse population,” said Cate Quinn, who was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis at the time of the research. “That diversity still exists. If we were to restore them as a group, these foxes may still have a lot of adaptive potential.”

Read the study in Molecular Ecology and Evolution.