Introduction history overrides social factors in explaining genetic structure of females in Mediterranean mouflon

Fine-scale spatial genetic structure of populations results from social and spatial behaviors of individuals such as sex-biased dispersal and philopatry. However, the demographic history of a given population can override such socio-spatial factors in shaping genetic variability when bottlenecks or founder events occurred in the population. Here, we investigated whether socio-spatial organization determines the fine-scale genetic structure for both sexes in a Mediterranean mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon×Ovis sp.) population in southern France 60 years after its introduction. Based on multilocus genotypes at 16 loci of microsatellite DNA (n=230 individuals), we identified three genetic groups for females and two for males, and concurrently defined the same number of socio-spatial units using both GPS-collared individuals (n=121) and visual re-sightings of marked individuals (n=378). The socio-spatial and genetic structures did not match, indicating that the former was not the main driver ...