Little is known about the relatedness structure of carnivores living in urban areas, where green spaces may vary in size and resource availability. We examined the minimum population size, relatedness structure, and genetic diversity of a recently established population of eastern coyotes (Canis latrans) inhabiting New York City (NYC). The population has been established for approximately 25 years, and sample collection for genetic analysis has been ongoing since 2010. We genotyped 234 scat, eight tissue, and three blood samples at nine microsatellite loci. We identified 45 individual coyotes with a male-biased sex ratio of 2.2:1. We also found moderate to high levels of genetic diversity, with average observed heterozygosity of 0.779 and mean number of alleles per locus of 7.8. Most of the green spaces surveyed supported a single group of closely related coyotes in each. Relatedness comparisons between parks also indicated that coyotes compared across different parks were also closely related. We identified two unrelated mated pairs and found no support for polygamy. The high incidence of relatedness suggests that the coyote population is descended from a small number of founding individuals. Additionally, we genetically recaptured several coyotes, including one individual sampled in the Bronx and in Queens, with a median of 103 days between resampling. This result indicates that the coyotes are persisting in some of the isolated greenspaces of New York City and able to move successfully between them.

中文翻译：

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纽约市东部郊狼（Canis latrans）最近成立的种群的遗传多样性和相关性。

对于居住在城市地区的食肉动物的相关性结构知之甚少，在这些地区，绿地的大小和资源可用性可能会有所不同。我们研究了东部土狼（Canis latrans）最近建立的种群的最小种群规模，相关性结构和遗传多样性）居住在纽约市（NYC）。人口已建立约25年，自2010年以来一直在进行样本收集以进行基因分析。我们在9个微卫星基因座上对234个粪便，8个组织和3个血液样本进行了基因分型。我们鉴定出45只个体土狼，其性别偏见为2.2：1。我们还发现中等至高水平的遗传多样性，平均观察到的杂合度为0.779，每个位点的平均等位基因数为7.8。接受调查的大多数绿地中的每一个都支持一组紧密相关的土狼。公园之间的相关性比较还表明，不同公园之间比较的土狼也密切相关。我们确定了两个无关的配偶对，但没有发现一夫多妻制。相关性的高发生率表明，土狼种群是由少数创始个体衍生而来的。此外，我们从基因上重新捕获了几只土狼，包括在布朗克斯和皇后区采样的一只土狼，两次采样之间的中位数为103天。该结果表明，土狼在纽约市一些孤立的绿地中持续存在，并能够在它们之间成功移动。