The Mouflons of the Kerguelen Archipelago: an Unexpected Genetic Biodiversity

The team of Denis Réale, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Ecology and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UQAM, published some remarkable research findings.

Reconstructing the genetic history of a population of mouflons descended from a single pair, the researchers demonstrated that the animals’ genetic diversity increased over time, contrary to what the usual models predict.

These results contradict the belief that a population descended from a small number of individuals will exhibit numerous deficiencies and reduced genetic diversity.