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The house mice of Faray, Orkney
Author(s) -
Berry R. J.,
Berry A. J.,
Anderson T. J. C.,
Scriven P.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1992.tb04605.x
Subject(s) - house mouse , biology , house mice , robertsonian translocation , population , period (music) , chromosomal translocation , zoology , locus (genetics) , genetics , demography , chromosome , karyotype , gene , sociology , physics , acoustics
Faray is a 250 ha island in Orkney, uninhabited by humans since 1946. The only small mammal is the house mouse, Mus domesticus , which between 1982 and 1986 fluctuated in numbers from a maximum of 400–500 to less than 50. Over the period when the population was at its smallest, the frequency of Hbb s increased from 29.1% to 46.6%. There was also a decrease in the frequency of a Robertsonian translocation, Rb (4.10) from 36.4% to 13.3% during the study period; two other Robertsonian chromosomes, Rb (3.14) and Rb (9.12), were always homozygous. The change at the Hbb locus is probably the result of genetic drift; this conclusion was reached only after other possibilities were excluded.