Szynwelski Bruna Elenara, Kretschmer Rafael, Matzenbacher Cristina Araujo, Ferrari Flávia, Alievi Marcelo Meller, de Freitas Thales Renato Ochotorena
Laboratório de Citogenética e Evolução, Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91509-900, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Departamento de Ecologia, Zoologia e Genética, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Campus Universitário Capão do Leão, Pelotas 96010-900, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Aug 3;13(15):2505. doi: 10.3390/ani13152505.
Hybridization between species with different evolutionary trajectories can be a powerful threat to wildlife conservation. Anthropogenic activities, such as agriculture and livestock, have led to the degradation and loss of natural habitats for wildlife. Consequently, the incidence of interspecific hybridization between wild and domestic species has increased, although cases involving species of different genera are rare. In Vacaria, a Southern city in Brazil, a female canid with a strange phenotype, which had characteristics between the phenotype of the domestic dog () and that of the pampas fox (), was found. Our analysis suggests that the animal is a hybrid between a domestic dog and a pampas fox, but future studies are necessary to investigate additional cases of this hybridization in nature. This finding worries for the conservation of wild canids in South America, especially concerning species. Hybridization with the domestic dog may have harmful effects on pampas fox populations due to the potential for introgression and disease transmission by the domestic dog. Therefore, future studies to explore the consequences of hybridization on genetics, ecology, and behavior of wild populations will be essential to improve the conservation of this species.
具有不同进化轨迹的物种之间的杂交可能对野生动物保护构成重大威胁。农业和畜牧业等人为活动导致了野生动物自然栖息地的退化和丧失。因此，野生与家养物种之间的种间杂交发生率有所增加，不过涉及不同属物种的情况较为罕见。在巴西南部城市瓦卡里亚，发现了一只具有奇特表型的雌性犬科动物，其特征介于家犬（）和潘帕斯狐（）的表型之间。我们的分析表明，这只动物是家犬和潘帕斯狐的杂交后代，但未来还需要进行更多研究来调查自然界中这种杂交的其他案例。这一发现令人担忧南美洲野生犬科动物的保护情况，尤其是关于 物种。由于家犬可能会发生基因渗入和疾病传播，与家犬杂交可能会对潘帕斯狐种群产生有害影响。因此，未来探索杂交对野生种群的遗传学、生态学和行为的影响的研究对于加强该物种的保护至关重要。
