van Staaden MJ, Hamilton MJ & RK Chesser 1995 Genetic variation of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in North America. Zeitschrift für Säugertierkunde 60: 1-9

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to examine genetic variation in nine wild populations of woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus, in North America. Serum samples were typed for 19 presumptive loci, of which only one was variable. Eleven alleles were identified at the transferrin locus. Significant variation in allele frequencies and substructuring was found throughout the range, although relatively little genetic heterogeneity occurred within populations and most of the variation (Fst = 0.307) was contained between population. Geographic and genetic distance were significantly related (r = 0.551). The endangered Selkirk population appears fixed for a single allele at the transferrin locus. To maintain the residual genetic variation in this population and to slow the rate of accumulation of inbreeding, we recommend the division of Anahim and Revelstoke populations into neighborhoods and a conservative strategy of transplants from these groups, without symmetrical exchange among populations in the western region.