Abstract
Abstract We assessed the effects of range disjunction, migratory habit, coloniality, and habitat structure on the genetic differentiation of North American Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) populations. Burrowing Owls in North America comprise two forms or subspecies: A. c. floridana in Florida, separated by ∼1,500 km from the western form, A. c. hypugaea, which ranges from Texas to California and north to southern Canada. Burrowing Owls tend to be loosely colonial, and both the Florida populations and southerly populations of A. c. hypugaea from California to Texas are nonmigratory. To assess genetic structure, we examined 201 individuals from nine western and six Florida populations at seven highly variable microsatellite DNA loci. Mean gene diversity (Hexp) was higher in the west than in Florida (0.539 and 0.341, respectively; P < 0.05). Populations within subspecies were essentially panmictic (A. c. floridana: θ = 0.038, ρ = 0.014; A. c. hypugaea: θ = 0.014, ρ = 0.009) and even genetic differentiatio...
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