Moving far, staying close: red fox dispersal patterns revealed by SNP genotyping

Abstract

The genetic structure of a population can provide important insights into animal movements at varying geographical scales. Individual and social behaviors, such as philopatry and dispersal, affect patterns of relatedness, age and sex structure, shaping the local genetic structure of populations. However, these fine scale patterns may not be detected within broader population genetic structure. Using SNP genotyping for pairwise relatedness estimates, we investigated the spatial and genetic structuring of 141 red foxes within south-central Sweden at two scales. First, we looked at broad scale population structuring among red foxes at the regional level. We then estimated pairwise relatedness values to evaluate the spatial and genetic structure of male, female and mixed sex pairs for patterns of philopatry and dispersal at a more localized scale. We found limited genetic differentiation at the regional scale. However, local investigations revealed patterns of female philopatry and male biased dispersal. There were significant differences in pairwise geographic distances between highly related same sex pairs with the average distance between related males, 37.8 km, being six times farther than that of related females, averaging 6.3 km. In summary, the low levels of genetic differentiation found in this study illustrates the mobility and dispersal ability of red foxes across scales. However, relatedness plays a strong role in the spatial organization of red foxes locally, ultimately contributing to male biased dispersal patterns.

Population Genetics of the Invasive Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, in South-Eastern Australia

“…A more recent study by Walton et al [43], using fox samples in Sweden and which had been using a limited number of SNPs, reported an average estimated heterozygosity of 0.450. This value is higher than our observed value for H E of 0.302; indeed, the value reported by Walton et al [43] is closer to those values reported for microsatellite H E , which range from approximately 0.46 to 0.75 [20,44]. Therefore, estimated values of heterozygosity observed in this study may represent a loss of genetic diversity when compared to fox populations in the Northern Hemisphere.…”

Low levels of genetic differentiation and structure in red fox populations in Eastern Canada and implications for Arctic fox rabies propagation potential

“…In most mammal species, we observe female philopatry and male-biased dispersal [ 47 ], although female-biased dispersal is also observed in many species [ 48 ]. In red foxes, evidence from the current literature support both male-biased dispersal [ 49 ] and female-biased dispersal [ 50 ].…”

Resources and predation: drivers of sociality in a cyclic mesopredator

“…During peak rodent phases, there was a trend, suggesting that social groups may be more common in remotely located dens. In Scandinavian red foxes, related females were more closely associated in space compared to males and individuals of opposite sex (Walton et al 2021 ), which is a likely consequence of male-biased dispersal and hence inbreeding avoidance. A similar pattern has also been observed in birds as Brouwer et al ( 2011 ) saw that female red-winged fairywren ( Malurus elegans ) moved further away if they were closely related to neighbouring males.…”