Conservation breeding programs, such as fenced reserves, conserve species by removing populations from key threatening processes and providing supplementary resources to support species preservation. This form of management often has the eventual aim to reintroduce individuals back to their native habitat. A key issue with captive management is the small breeding pool, due to generally small population sizes and limited migration, which may lead to inbreeding and consequent inbreeding depression. We investigated inbreeding and its potential fitness consequences in a large, free-ranging, captive population of an Australian marsupial, the long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus), a species that has been recently impacted by severe bushfire. We used reduced-representation sequencing to genotype single nucleotide polymorphisms and reconstruct a pedigree for the population. We detected low levels of inbreeding in our partial pedigree that incorporated 50.7% (34/67) of sampled individuals. Inbreeding depression was investigated using heterozygosity–fitness correlations of six fitness measurements, but we found no evidence of inbreeding depression in the population despite strong molecular evidence for inter-individual variation in inbreeding coefficient. Our findings suggest that the potoroo population at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (TNR) maintains a high level of diversity. As the population is descendant of animals from divergent sources, the TNR population also helps conservationists to learn more about potential consequences of admixture, and plan recovery strategies for the species. For TNR potoroos, we suggest that current management protocols have been effective at maintaining diversity to date. More generally, our results show how modern molecular techniques can efficiently characterise the genetic profile of a free-ranging, captive population to help inform management guidelines for wild recovery.

诸如围栏保护区之类的保护育种计划通过将种群从关键威胁过程中移出并提供补充资源来支持物种保护来保护物种。这种管理形式的最终目的通常是使个人重新回到自己的家乡。圈养管理的一个关键问题是繁殖种群少，这是由于总体上种群规模较小和迁徙有限，这可能导致近交繁殖和随之而来的近交衰退。我们调查了澳大利亚有袋有袋动物长鼻potoroo（Potorous tridactylus）的大量自由放养人口中的近亲繁殖及其潜在的适应性后果），该物种最近受到严重丛林大火的影响。我们使用减少表示法测序对单核苷酸多态性进行基因分型，并为该群体重建谱系。我们在部分谱系中检测到低水平的近交，其中包含50.7％（34/67）的采样个体。使用六个适应度测量的杂合度与适应性相关性研究了近交衰退，但是尽管有强有力的分子证据表明近交系数存在个体差异，但我们没有发现近交衰退的证据。我们的发现表明，蒂宾比拉自然保护区（TNR）的potoroo种群保持着较高的多样性。由于人口是来自不同来源的动物的后代，TNR种群还可以帮助保护主义者更多地了解掺混物的潜在后果，并规划该物种的恢复策略。对于TNR potoroos，我们建议当前的管理协议可以有效地保持迄今为止的多样性。更广泛地说，我们的结果表明，现代分子技术如何有效地表征自由放养的圈养种群的遗传特征，从而有助于为野生恢复提供管理指南。