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Assessing the genetic effects of rehabilitating harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Wadden Sea using stochastic simulations

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Abstract

Rehabilitation of marine mammals with the intent of releasing them back into nature is carried out for several species. Rehabilitation can help supporting critically endangered species, increase public awareness, and serve scientific purposes, but rehabilitation also causes concern due to risk of introducing diseases into the wild populations and genetic changes from disruption of natural selection and host-pathogen co-evolution. In this study, we investigate another potential risk from rehabilitation that has not previously been considered, i.e., anthropogenic increase in population inbreeding level. For this purpose, we performed stochastic population viability analyses of the Wadden Sea harbor seal population using VORTEX. In the Wadden Sea, rehabilitation takes place in several rehabilitation centers, and many of the seals suffer from parasitic bronchopneumonia or are orphaned. Several studies have found a correlation between helminth infection and inbreeding level. Moreover, a relation between fitness traits such as pup survival and inbreeding has been demonstrated. On this basis, we assess the effects from rehabilitating relatively inbred seals on population size and genetic diversity. We find that releasing seals significantly affect population inbreeding level and to a lesser extent population size. The effect depends on the level of inbreeding in rehabilitated seals as well as the actual number of inbred seals released.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank associate professor Trine Hammer Jensen at Department of chemistry and bioscience, Aalborg University and associate professor Jennifer Stone at the University of Melbourne for valuable comments and discussions.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark

    Lasse Fast Jensen, Rasmus Ejbye-Ernst, Thomas Yssing Michaelsen, Anne Jensen, Ditte Marie Hansen, Majken Elley Nielsen & Cino Pertoldi

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  1. Lasse Fast Jensen
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  2. Rasmus Ejbye-Ernst
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  3. Thomas Yssing Michaelsen
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  4. Anne Jensen
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Correspondence to Lasse Fast Jensen.

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Communicated by: Allan McDevitt

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Jensen, L.F., Ejbye-Ernst, R., Michaelsen, T.Y. et al. Assessing the genetic effects of rehabilitating harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Wadden Sea using stochastic simulations. Mamm Res 62, 363–372 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-017-0323-3

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