Mkj. Swart et al., SUBSTANTIAL GENETIC-VARIATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN BLACK RHINOCEROS (DICEROS-BICORNIS), The Journal of heredity, 85(4), 1994, pp. 261-266
Thirty protein-coding loci of southern African black rhinoceros (Dicer
os bicornis) from four isolated populations were studied using starch
gel electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Gene diver
sity estimates varied between 0.036 and 0.058, with the Zambezi Valley
population having the largest amount of protein variation. These leve
ls are higher than those in other studies of genetic variation in blac
k rhinoceros and are similar to the amount of genetic variation observ
ed for outbred natural populations that are not genetically depauperat
e. Because the observed levels of genetic variation vastly exceed the
expectations for current effective population sizes, the current level
s apparently reflect large black rhinoceros populations which have exi
sted until recently. Observed levels of genetic variation within popul
ations are consistent with the expectations when recent demographic ev
ents are taken into account.