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Conservation biology

Inbreeding leads to extinction

Nature volume 392, pages 441–442 (1998)Cite this article

Do genetic problems contribute to the endangerment and extinction of wild populations? Conservation biologists initially thought1 that they would — and seriously so. But it is extremely difficult to demonstrate that inbreeding contributes to the extinction of wild populations. On page 491 of this issue, however, Saccheri and colleagues2 provide the first direct evidence that it does, with their elegant work on a wild butterfly metapopulation in Finland.

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Figure 1: Doomed liaison — a mating pair of Glanville fritillary butterflies (Melitaea cinxia).

I. SACCHERI

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, 2109, New South Wales, Australia

    Richard Frankham

  2. the Department of Zoological Research, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20008, USA

    Katherine Ralls

Authors
  1. Richard Frankham
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  2. Katherine Ralls
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Frankham, R., Ralls, K. Inbreeding leads to extinction. Nature 392, 441–442 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33022

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