GENETIC-VARIATION IN THE LITTLE RED FLYING-FOX PTEROPUS-SCAPULATUS (CHIROPTERA, PTEROPODIDAE) - IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

The little red flying-fox Pteropus scapulatus has a range exceeding 3. 5 million km(2) during its seasonal migration in Australia. Management of this species has been problematical because the range spans Jive S tates and Territories, each with its own system of managing wildlife. The results of an investigation of population structure by genetic ana lysis are presented. Allozyme electrophoresis and Random Amplified Pol ymorphic DNA (RAPD) analyses were used to determine genetic variation within and among sh populations from widely separated locations on the continent. Both allozyme and DNA techniques demonstrated very little genetic structuring among the subpopulation samples. Analysis of molec ular variance on the RAPD data showed only 5% of variance among popula tions, although this difference was shown to be significant. A value o f 0.028 for Wright's F-ST (a measure of the among-population component of variance in allele frequencies) suggested a similarly low degree o f differentiation among subpopulations. The levels of gene flow detect ed by these generic analyses indicate that P. scapulatus is effectivel y panmictic.