Manzo Emiliano, Bartolommei Paola, Dell'Agnello Filippo, Cozzolino Roberto
Fondazione Ethoikos Radicondoli Italy.
Ecol Evol. 2022 Jun 6;12(6):e8980. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8980. eCollection 2022 Jul.
Evidence of abnormal coloration in wild animals provides useful information to better understand its adaptive function and its impact on survival. For this reason, we need to know the frequency and distribution of these abnormal phenotypes in wild populations. Here, we report two records of hypopigmentation in European pine marten , obtained during a camera-trapping survey on Elba Island, Central Italy. We do not know what has caused anomalous coloration of pine marten on Elba Island, but it is possible that the inbreeding may have played a role in this isolated population. Although the light coloration certainly entails an increased visibility of pine martens, it is possible that the low predator pressure and the absence of other wild carnivore populations in our study could mitigate the mortality risk due to the light phenotype. The increased use of camera traps across the world can potentially facilitate the discovery of cases of anomalous colorations in wild populations, providing an unprecedented insight into the occurrence of this phenomenon in wild mammal species.
野生动物出现异常毛色的证据为更好地理解其适应功能及其对生存的影响提供了有用信息。因此，我们需要了解这些异常表型在野生种群中的频率和分布情况。在此，我们报告了在意大利中部厄尔巴岛进行的一次相机陷阱调查中获得的两份欧洲松貂色素沉着不足的记录。我们不知道是什么导致了厄尔巴岛松貂毛色异常，但近亲繁殖可能在这个孤立种群中起到了作用。尽管毛色变浅肯定会增加松貂被发现的几率，但在我们的研究中，低捕食压力以及没有其他野生食肉动物种群，可能会降低浅色表型带来的死亡风险。全球范围内相机陷阱使用的增加，有可能促进发现野生种群中毛色异常的案例，为深入了解这种现象在野生哺乳动物物种中的发生情况提供前所未有的视角。
