SGER: Monitoring Anacapa Island Deer Mice: Population Bottleneck, Release, and Reestablishment

该项目将利用一个独特的机会来监测一个控制人口瓶颈的进展及其后果，在捕获，释放和恢复计划的受威胁的哺乳动物，Anacapa岛鹿鼠（Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae）。这种鹿鼠是一种特有的亚种，只出现在构成加州海峡群岛之一的阿纳卡帕的三个小岛上。海峡群岛国家公园目前正在进行一项计划，以消除引进的老鼠，老鼠。消灭老鼠的方法是用一种强效的啮齿动物毒药进行大规模的毒杀;鹿鼠和老鼠都将被消灭。此前，阿什利博士进行了保护和管理研究，使用的方法，包括分子遗传学，形态测量和种群生存力分析（PVA）的组合。因此，建议公园管理局从每个小岛上捕获至少333只老鼠，将它们圈养起来，然后作为重新引入的种群。根据研究，这种情况将产生一个具有高概率的持久性的种群，保持遗传变异，但代表着一种可行的事业。这项计划目前正在执行中。在这里，阿什利博士建议利用这一独特的机会来监测这些人群的恢复情况。她将对每只重新引入的老鼠进行采样和基因分型，定期对种群进行普查，并每半年重新采样一次。 这项研究的影响远远超出了岛屿地方病的管理。该项目将测试PVA的结果，将种群遗传理论的预测与真实的世界进行比较，并将评估圈养繁殖和重新引入计划。大多数物种管理项目涉及一个或多个这些做法，但成果很少进行评估或实地测试。通过监测鹿鼠的数量，分布和遗传变异，因为它们是重新引入和恢复期间，这项研究的结果将提供重要的新信息，可以直接应用于管理和保护其他濒危脊椎动物物种。

This project will take advantage of a unique opportunity to monitor the progress of a controlled population bottleneck and its aftermath during a capture, release, and recovery program for a threatened mammal, the Anacapa Island deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae). This deer mouse is an endemic subspecies that occurs only on the three small islets that comprise Anacapa, one of the California Channel Islands. The Channel Islands National Park is currently conducting a program to eradicate the introduced rat, Rattus rattus. Rat eradication is conducted by large-scale poisoning with a potent rodent poison; deer mice as well as rats will be extirpated. Previously Dr. Ashley had conducted a conservation and management study using a combination of approaches that included molecular genetics, morphological measurements and population viability analysis (PVA). As a result, recommendations were made to the Park Service to capture a minimum of 333 mice from each of the islets, hold them in captivity, and use then as stock for reintroduction. According to research, this scenario would produce a population with high probability of persistence that maintained genetic variation, and yet represented a feasible undertaking. This plan is currently being implemented. Here Dr. Ashley proposes to take advantage of this unique opportunity to monitor the recovery of these populations. She will sample and genotype every mouse reintroduced, census the population regularly, and resample biannually. The impact of this research extends well beyond the management of an island endemic. The project will test the outcome of a PVA, compare predictions of population genetic theory to the real world, and will evaluate a captive breeding and reintroduction program. Most species management projects involve one or more of these practices, but outcomes are rarely evaluated or field-tested. By monitoring the numbers, distributions, and genetic variation in deer mice as they are reintroduced and during their recovery, the results of this study will provide important new information that can be directly applied to management and conservation of other endangered vertebrate species.