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We isolated and characterized 11 microsatellite loci in the Mona Island iguana (Cyclura cornuta stejnegeri). Eleven loci exhibit moderate to high allelic diversity (two to 12 alleles, mean = 4.5) and polymorphism (mean observed heterozygosity, 0.56; range, 0.26 to 0.78) in 41 adults. This marker set has low probability of identity and high parentage exclusion power and will be suitable for studies of paternity, social organization and relatedness in this species.

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Persons with haemophilia often experience their first joint haemorrhage in early childhood. Recurrent bleeding into a joint may lead to significant morbidity, specifically haemophilic arthropathy. Early identification of the onset and progression of joint damage is critical to preserving joint structure and function. Physical examination is the most feasible approach to monitor joint health. Our group developed the Colorado Haemophilia Paediatric Joint Physical Examination Scale to identify earlier signs of joint degeneration and incorporate developmentally appropriate tasks for assessing joint function in young children. This study's objectives were to establish normal ranges for this scale and assess interrater reliability. The ankles, knees and elbows of 72 healthy boys aged 1 through 7 years were evaluated by a physical therapist to establish normal ranges. Exactly 10 boys in each age category from 2 to 7 years were evaluated by a second physical therapist to determine interrater reliability. The original scale was modified to account for the finding that mild angulation in the weight-bearing joints is developmentally normal. The interrater reliability of the scale ranged from fair to good, underscoring the need for physical therapists to have specific training in the orthopaedic assessment of very young children and the measurement error inherent in the goniometer. Modifications to axial alignment scoring will allow the scale to distinguish healthy joints from those suffering frequent haemarthroses.

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Behavioural observations suggest that orang-utans are semi-solitary animals with females being philopatric and males roaming more widely in search of receptive partners, leading to the prediction that females are more closely related than males at any given site. In contrast, our study presents evidence for male and female philopatry in the orang-utan. We examined patterns of relatedness and parentage in a wild orang-utan population in Borneo using noninvasively collected DNA samples from animals observed to defecate, and microsatellite markers to assess dispersal and mating strategies. Surprisingly, resident females were equally as related to other resident females (mean r(xy) = 0.303) as resident males were to other resident males (mean r(xy) = 0.305). Moreover, resident females were more related to each other and to the resident males than they were to nonresident females, and resident males were more related to each other (and resident females) than they were to nonresident males. We assigned genetic mothers to 12 individuals in the population, while sires could be identified for eight. Both flanged males and unflanged males achieved paternity, similar to findings reported for Sumatran orang-utans.

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The amount of nuclear DNA extracted from teeth of 279 individual red fox Vulpes vulpes collected over a period spanning the last three decades was determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although teeth were autoclaved during initial collection, 73.8% of extracts contained sufficient DNA concentration (> 5 pg/ micro L) suitable for reliable microsatellite genotyping but the quantity of nuclear DNA decayed significantly over time in a nonlinear pattern. The success of PCR amplification across four examined canine microsatellites over time was dependent on fragment size. By including data from two different tests for human contamination and from frequencies of allelic dropout and false alleles, the methodological constraints of population genetic studies using microsatellite loci amplified from historic DNA are discussed.

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The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of the best-documented examples of a species that has successfully occupied cities and their suburbs during the last century. The city of Zurich (Switzerland) was colonized by red foxes 15 years ago and the number of recorded individuals has increased steadily since then. Here, we assessed the hypothesis that the fox population within the city of Zurich is isolated from adjacent rural fox populations against the alternative hypothesis that urban habitat acts as a constant sink for rural dispersers. We examined 11 microsatellite loci in 128 foxes from two urban areas, separated by the main river crossing the city, and three adjacent rural areas from the region of Zurich. Mean observed heterozygosity across individuals and the number of detected alleles were lower for foxes collected within the city as compared with their rural conspecifics. Genetic differentiation was significantly lower between rural than between rural and urban populations, and highest value of pairwise FST was recorded between the two urban areas. Our results indicate that the two urban areas were independently founded by a small number of individuals from adjacent rural areas resulting in genetic drift and genetic differentiation between rural and urban fox populations. Population admixture and immigration analysis revealed that urban-rural gene flow was higher than expected from FST statistics. In the five to seven generations since colonization, fox density has dramatically increased. Currently observed levels of migration between urban and rural populations will probably erode genetic differentiation over time.

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