A comparison of pedigree- and genetic-based measures for identifying inbreeding depression in the critically endangered Attwater’s Prairie-chicken

The primary goal of captive breeding programs for endangered species is to prevent extinction, a component of which includes the preservation of genetic diversity and avoidance of inbreeding. This is typically accomplished by minimizing mean kinship in the population, thereby maintaining equal representation of the genetic founders used to initiate the captive population. If errors in the pedigree do exist, such an approach becomes less effective for minimizing inbreeding depression. In this study both pedigree- and DNA-based methods were used to assess whether inbreeding depression existed in the captive population of the critically endangered Attwater's Prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri), a subspecies of prairie grouse that has experienced a significant decline in abundance and concurrent reduction of neutral genetic diversity. When examining the captive population for signs of inbreeding, variation in pedigree-based inbreeding coefficients (f_pedigree) was less than that ...