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