Introduced and Indigenous Populations of Muskoxen Lack Definition Based on Mitochondrial DNA Sequences

Pamela Groves
Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000 USA.

Two subspecies of muskoxen are commonly recognized, Ovibos moschatus moschatus on the mainland of Canada and O. m. wardi on the arctic islands of Canada and in Greenland. Introduced populations of muskoxen in Alaska are from O. m. wardi stock. There is a strong possibility of the mixing of the transplanted Alaskan (O. m. wardi) and indigenous Canadian (O. m. moschatus) muskoxen as both populations expand their ranges. Concern has developed about the interbreeding of these two formerly separate populations because their mixing would be the result of human manipulation. The management implications of the mixing of the two muskox populations make the definition of muskox subspecies a crucial issue at this time. Control region sequences from mitochondrial DNA were compared to attempt to define differences between muskox subspecies and populations. Sequences, 860 base pairs in length, from 37 muskoxen from eight populations were analyzed. On the intraspecific level, variation was so low, differences between subspecies could not be defined. Identical genotypes were observed in O. m. moschatus and O. m. wardi populations. Based on these results, there appears no reason to prevent the mixing of the indigenous Canadian and introduced Alaskan stocks. Apparently a long history of bottlenecks has reduced genetic variation among muskoxen to extremely low levels.

 
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