Mkj. Swart et Jwh. Ferguson, CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS OF GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN POPULATIONS OF BLACK RHINOCEROS (DICEROS-BICORNIS), Conservation biology, 11(1), 1997, pp. 79-83
We analyzed 30 protein-coding loci of four southern African black rhin
oceros populations in order to calculate fixation indices and genetic
distances for the different populations. We concluded that one of thes
e populations is of the subspecies Diceros bicornis bicornis and the o
ther three of Diceros bicornis minor. No evidence of inbreeding within
populations was found F- statistics revealed significant differentiat
ion between populations. Small genetic distances found among the four
populations reveal that they are conspecific, and no evidence was foun
d to support the claim that the populations belong to discrete subspec
ies. Rather, an east-west cline in genetic characteristics appears to
exist with G6pd and HB-2 alleles peculiar to western populations and E
s-2 and GP-3 alleles peculiar to eastern populations.