Aggregation on trees does not elevate inbreeding risk in the Shedao pit vipers Gloydius shedaoensis

With the fragmentation of
critical resources (e.g. habitat or foraging site), a number of threatened
species choose to aggregate with many individuals living together. This may
increase their survival, nevertheless, this would also dramatically increases
the likelihood of mating among relatives and aggravate inbreeding risk. Uncovering
the relationship between aggregation and inbreeding risk becomes increasingly urgent,
and it would contribute a lot to the conservation in endangered species. Using one
endangered species pit viper (Gloydius shedaoensis) from “snake
island in China, we examined whether aggregation on
trees increase the inbreeding risk. The genotypes of 45
individual snakes were collected using 17 microsatellite DNA loci.