Transgenerational Effects of Parental Rearing Environment Influence the Survivorship of Captive‐Born Offspring in the Wild

• Published in: Conservation Letters
• Main Authors: Evans, Melissa L., Wilke, Nathan F., O'Reilly, Patrick T., Fleming, Ian A.
• Other Authors: NSERC Strategic, New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund and Mountain Equipment Co-op, DFO's Species at Risk Act and Canadian Regulatory System for Biotechnology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2014
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/conl.12092; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fconl.12092; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/conl.12092/fullpdf

Abstract As natural populations decline, captive breeding and rearing programs have become essential components of conservation efforts. However, captive rearing can cause unintended phenotypic and/or genetic changes that adversely impact on population restoration efforts. Here, we test whether the exposure of captive‐reared Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) to natural river environments (i.e., “wild exposure”) during early life can serve as a mitigation technique to improve the survivorship of descendents in the wild. Using genetic pedigree reconstruction, we observed a two‐fold increase in the survivorship of offspring of wild‐exposed parents compared to the offspring of captive parents. Our results suggest that harnessing the influence of transgenerational effects in captive‐rearing programs can improve the outcomes of endangered species restoration efforts.