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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.