Population Genetics of Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in the Midwest, USA

Jamison J. Ash, Thando Q. May, Dawn M. RedingDepartment of Biology, Luther College, Decorah, IA, 52101

BACKGROUND SUMMARY OF RESULTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

• Gray fox populations may be declining across the Midwest.

We thank Jeff Beringer (Missouri Dept. of Conservation) for organizing sample collection, and Bill Clark (Iowa State University) for facilitating the DNA sequence analysis. This work was supported by a grant from the Iowa Science Foundation (ISF #13-04) administered by the Iowa Academy of Science. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Iowa Science Foundation.

QUESTIONS

FUTURE DIRECTION• Collected tissue samples from harvested and road-killed animals.

• Extracted DNA from 49 individuals from 4 states: Wisconsin (n=11), Missouri (n=16), Kentucky (n=12), and North Carolina (n=10). (see Figure 6)

• Amplified and sequenced ~400 base pairs of the control region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) - same region that was analyzed from eastern gray fox.

•Compared our data with the known sequences found in the eastern gray fox samples (data downloaded from Genbank).

• Constructed a haplotype network to visualize the relationships among the DNA sequences

Figure 1. Distribution of gray fox subspecies (based on Hall 1981).

METHODS

Bozarth CA, Lance SL, Civitello DJ, Glenn JL, Maldonado JE (2011) Phylogeography of the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in the eastern United States. Journal of Mammalogy, 92, 283-294.

Department of the Interior (2012) Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; 90-day finding on a petition to list the prairie gray fox, the plains spotted skunk, and a distinct population segment of the Mearn’s eastern cottontail in east-central Illinois and western Indiana as endangered or threatened species. Federal Register, 77, 71759-71771.

Hall ER (1981) The mammals of North America. Second edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.

Jennell CS, Clark WR (2012) 2012 Bowhunter Observation Survey. Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

• Gray fox range across much of North America and into northern South America.

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently initiated a status review to determine whether the “prairie gray fox” subspecies (U. c. ocythus) should be listed as threatened or endangered (Dept. of the Interior 2012). • However, it is unclear whether the current subspecies delineations reflect the actual structure of gray fox populations.

Figure 2. Results of bowhunter surveys conducted by Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources, indicating few observations of gray fox in northern Iowa and declining observations in southern Iowa (Jennell and Clark 2012).

• Based on body size and coat color variation, 16 subspecies have been described, 7 of which occur in the USA

• A recent study across 15 states found genetic differentiation between the northeast and the rest of the eastern U.S.

• But little genetic differentiation was found between the two southern subspecies (U. c. cinereoargenteus and U. c. floridanus).

Figure 3. Results (pie charts of unique mtDNA sequences) of a genetic study of gray fox across eastern U.S. (Bozarth et al. 2011)

•Are “prairie gray fox” (U. c. ocythus) genetically unique relative to populations to the east?

• If so, what is its range? Does it match the current subspecies map?

Figure 4. A gray fox.

• Found 17 distinct mtDNA sequences (“haplotypes”) among the 49 individuals:• 10 of these haplotypes are newly

discovered• 7 were found in eastern gray fox.

• Haplotype network shows little geographic structure:• Midwestern haplotypes are often the same as,

or genetically close to, those found in the eastern U.S.

• Some haplotypes are shared between multiple sites (see pie charts in Figure 5).

•Additional data are needed to address our questions.• Through collaborative efforts with state agencies, we are collecting additional samples this winter, including some in the western U.S. (see Figure 6)

• We will also be using other genetic markers (such as microsatellites) in addition to the mtDNA sequences.

RELATIONSHIPS OF SEQUENCES

Figure 5. A haplotype network illustrating the relationships among each of the unique DNA sequences (“haplotypes”) found in Midwest or eastern U.S. gray fox. Each circle represents a unique haplotype, with size proportional to frequency. Lines connecting haplotypes indicates that the two haplotypes differ by a single mutation (unless otherwise indicated by number of hash marks).

Figure 6. Map shows which states we have requested samples from, with desired sample size indicated. Red dots represent locations of the 49 samples already analyzed.