Association between social and genetic networks in a desert equid and the networks responses to environmental perturbation

Bringing endangered species back from the brink of extinction often is a two stage process. First, numbers have to be increased to enlarge and stabilize the population. Second, the genetic diversity of the population must not be lost and ideally, enhanced. Unfortunately, processes that foster population growth often compromise increasing the genetic diversity of the population. In species such as the Asiatic wild ass, where only males that acquire and successfully defend territories can mate, dominance will skew how much each male contributes to future generations, if at all. Since water is the key resource that limits wild ass access to good forage, territories in the vicinity of water are preferred by dominant males. Thus, adding more water points should not only increase the number of territorial males available to mate, it increases the abundance of forage available to females, thus increasing their body condition and fertility. Both factors will accelerate population growth. By increasing the number of different males mating, genetic diversity should increase. But since the females range widely, their movements through territories of males may increase or decrease the diversity of female genes that are spread to future generations. Thus, unraveling the way males and females respond to increases in the number of watering points will determine not only the rate at which populations grow initially, but also the extent to which populations genetic diversity is increased.