Download Shaelynn Sleater-Squires La Kretz Graduate Grant 2014-2015

Shaelynn Sleater-Squires
La Kretz Graduate Grant 2014-2015
Multigenerational Bobcat Pedigree: A Powerful and Instructive Tool for Conservation
The World Wildlife Fund’s 2014 Living Planet Report estimated that over the past 40 years there has
been a 50% decline in vertebrate population numbers, primarily due to habitat degradation and loss.
Anthropogenic land conversion for urban and agricultural development has been particularly
damaging as it often partitions suitable habitat into deficient remnants. The resulting patchy network
of natural spaces spawns small wildlife populations, which are prone to loss of genetic diversity due
to drift and inbreeding risk, thus putting their long-term viability in jeopardy. Mammalian carnivores
seem to be particularly susceptible to local extinction in fragmented areas due to their small
population sizes, wide home ranges, and direct persecution by humans; yet, they play a key role in
the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem health by keeping herbivores in check. In addition,
carnivores can act as umbrella species, which means their protection indirectly protects the habitat of
numerous other plant and animal species. Taken together, an understanding of mammalian carnivore
demography and genetic health can inform conservation planning and management strategies in
myriad species. The bobcats (Lynx rufus) of southern California have been found to be an
informative indicator species for the health of Los Angeles’s fragmented ecosystems. I plan to
collaborate with the National Park Service to construct a multigenerational pedigree for the Santa
Monica Mountain bobcat population, which has been monitored continuously since 1996, to further
our understanding of the spatial distribution and reproductive behavior in this mesopredator. My
broad goals are to (1) discover patterns of landscape recolonization following a severe disease
outbreak, (2) investigate whether there is evidence of kin-biased spatial associations before and after
the outbreak, (3) quantify fine-scale levels of inbreeding over time, and (4) shed light on individual
life histories and lifetime reproductive success in the SMM bobcat population.