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 (<i>Gloydius shedaoensis</i>) 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.