Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type
Abstract Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear ( Ursus americanus ) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.6490 2024-09-30T14:35:20+00:00 Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type Lewis, Tania Roffler, Gretchen Crupi, Anthony Maraj, Ramona Barten, Neil National Park Service 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6490 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6490 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 14, page 7654-7668 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490 2024-09-17T04:49:42Z Abstract Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear ( Ursus americanus ) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore how this structure relates to pelage color and landscape features of a recently glaciated and highly fragmented landscape. We used existing radiocollar data to quantify black bear home‐range size within the geographic range of glacier bears. The mean home‐range size of female black bears in the study area was 13 km 2 ( n = 11), whereas the home range of a single male was 86.9 km 2 . We genotyped 284 bears using 21 microsatellites extracted from noninvasively collected hair as well as tissue samples from harvested bears. We found ten populations of black bears in the study area, including several new populations not previously identified, divided largely by geographic features such as glaciers and marine fjords. Glacier bears were assigned to four populations found on the north and east side of Lynn Canal and the north and west side of Glacier Bay with a curious absence in the nonglaciated peninsula between. Lack of genetic relatedness and geographic continuity between black bear populations containing glacier bears suggest a possible unsampled population or an association with ice fields. Further investigation is needed to determine the genetic basis and the adaptive and evolutionary significance of the glacier bear color morph to help focus black bear conservation management to maximize and preserve genetic diversity. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier glacier* glaciers Alaska Wiley Online Library Glacier Bay Canada Ecology and Evolution 10 14 7654 7668 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Glacier bears are a rare grey color morph of American black bear ( Ursus americanus ) found only in northern Southeast Alaska and a small portion of western Canada. We examine contemporary genetic population structure of black bears within the geographic extent of glacier bears and explore how this structure relates to pelage color and landscape features of a recently glaciated and highly fragmented landscape. We used existing radiocollar data to quantify black bear home‐range size within the geographic range of glacier bears. The mean home‐range size of female black bears in the study area was 13 km 2 ( n = 11), whereas the home range of a single male was 86.9 km 2 . We genotyped 284 bears using 21 microsatellites extracted from noninvasively collected hair as well as tissue samples from harvested bears. We found ten populations of black bears in the study area, including several new populations not previously identified, divided largely by geographic features such as glaciers and marine fjords. Glacier bears were assigned to four populations found on the north and east side of Lynn Canal and the north and west side of Glacier Bay with a curious absence in the nonglaciated peninsula between. Lack of genetic relatedness and geographic continuity between black bear populations containing glacier bears suggest a possible unsampled population or an association with ice fields. Further investigation is needed to determine the genetic basis and the adaptive and evolutionary significance of the glacier bear color morph to help focus black bear conservation management to maximize and preserve genetic diversity. |
author2 |
National Park Service |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lewis, Tania Roffler, Gretchen Crupi, Anthony Maraj, Ramona Barten, Neil |
spellingShingle |
Lewis, Tania Roffler, Gretchen Crupi, Anthony Maraj, Ramona Barten, Neil Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
author_facet |
Lewis, Tania Roffler, Gretchen Crupi, Anthony Maraj, Ramona Barten, Neil |
author_sort |
Lewis, Tania |
title |
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
title_short |
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
title_full |
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
title_fullStr |
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: Genetic population structure of black bears ( Ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
title_sort |
unraveling the mystery of the glacier bear: genetic population structure of black bears ( ursus americanus) within the range of a rare pelage type |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6490 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6490 |
geographic |
Glacier Bay Canada |
geographic_facet |
Glacier Bay Canada |
genre |
glacier glacier* glaciers Alaska |
genre_facet |
glacier glacier* glaciers Alaska |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 14, page 7654-7668 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6490 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
14 |
container_start_page |
7654 |
op_container_end_page |
7668 |
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1811638640435003392 |