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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 46(3)

Persistence of social structuring in an arid zone mammal following reintroduction

Alexander James Cooke A B , Cheryl Lohr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8925-0983 A * , W. Jason Kennington B and Kym Ottewell A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Biodiversity Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, 17 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia.

B School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth WA 6009, Australia.

* Correspondence to: Cheryl.lohr@dbca.wa.gov.au

Handling Editor: Mark Eldridge

Australian Mammalogy 46, AM23051 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23051
Submitted: 24 November 2023  Accepted: 17 June 2024  Published: 18 July 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.

Abstract

Animal social relationships affect animal survival, reproduction, and resource exploitation, and are important to translocation success, but little is known on how they are impacted in reintroduced populations. Here, we investigate the social genetic structure in a reintroduced population of boodies (Bettongia lesueur), one of few social burrowing marsupial species in Australia. Pairwise relatedness of male and female individuals located within seven warrens was determined using 12 microsatellite markers, while mitochondrial DNA was used to identify maternal ancestral lineage. Females were significantly more related within warrens than between warrens, while the difference among males was not significant. We also found evidence of fine-scale genetic structure up to distances of 2 km in females consistent with patterns found in natural populations. Although mean relatedness values were low, our results support the hypothesis that boodies exhibit a female social structure. Multiple maternal lineages were present within all warrens with one exception, suggesting boodies appear to be non-selective when living with individuals from different ancestral backgrounds. We found a significant positive relationship between female sex bias and the number of active entrances in each warren. Together, these results suggest that social structuring should be a key consideration in future reintroductions of boodies.

Keywords: arid zone, Bettongia lesueur, burrowing bettong, hybrid, Indigenous Protected Area, Lorna Glen, social system, warrens.

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