Janice S. Martenson

TL;DR: The Florida panther has recently suffered severe range and demographic contraction, leaving a remarkably low level of genetic diversity, manifested by spermatozoal defects, cryptorchidism, cardiac abnormalities and infectious diseases that threaten the survival of the subspecies.

TL;DR: To investigate the species' evolutionary history and to establish objective methods for subspecies recognition, voucher specimens of blood, skin, hair, and/or skin biopsies from 134 tigers with verified geographic origins or heritage across the whole distribution range were examined for molecular markers.

TL;DR: Comprehensive analysis reveals that feline herpesvirus and FIV were consistently prevalent at high levels, indicating that they were endemic in the host populations, and examination of the relationship between disease outbreaks and host fitness suggest that these viruses do not affect birth and death rates in lions.

TL;DR: The simulations suggest that the Crater population may have passed through previous bottlenecks before 1962 but that the level of heterozygosity in the breeding population has been declining since the mid-1970s, regardless of the population's genetic composition in the 1960s.

TL;DR: Observations indicate that, although the pathological potential of these viral infections seemed not to be very high in free-ranging lions, relocation of seropositive animals by humans to seronegative lion populations must be considered very carefully.