Microsatellite Analysis of Mountain Hares (Lepus timidus hibernicus): Low Genetic Differentiation and Possible Sex-Bias in Dispersal

• Published in: Journal of Mammalogy
• Main Authors: Hamill, Ruth M., Doyle, Deirdre, Duke, Edward J.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2007
• Subjects: Feature Articles; Lepus timidus; mountain hare
• Online Access: http://jmammal.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/88/3/784; https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-419R1.1

Mountain hares ( Lepus timidus hibernicus Bell) are extremely vagile and commute up to 3 km daily within their home ranges. However, observational and mark-recapture evidence suggests that they do not disperse far in their lifetime. Whether behavioral factors such as philopatry are promoting genetic structuring in this largely solitary species is not known. We examined genetic structure in the mountain hare using microsatellite markers from 321 mountain hares from across southern Ireland. Genetic differentiation ranged from low to moderate (pairwise F ST = 0-0.116), and across distances of 200 km, F St was not correlated with geographic distance, suggesting possible population fragmentation. Home ranges of males in this species are significantly larger than those of females during the breeding season, suggesting that dispersal may be male-biased. Mean corrected assignment index (mAI c ) was lower in males (-0.280) than in females (0.403). F St was lower among male cohorts of population samples (0.040) than among female cohorts (0.051), but the difference was not significant. These results are consistent with natal dispersal of nonresident males into the sampling areas.