Effect of the hereditary characteristics of male blue foxes Alopex lagopus L. on the sex ratio of their offspring

Abstract

Family analysis of a commercial population of the blue fox (the Pushkinskoe Breeding Fur Farm, Moscow oblast) with respect to secondary sex ratio has been performed. The offspring of each individual male or female involved in crossing between 1984 and 1988 was analyzed. The study of all families formed by every male and every female has made it possible to determine a group of "outstanding" fathers (23 out of 287 males), whose offspring was predominantly male (62.1% of the offspring were males, versus 53.9% in the total population). The results of subsequent detailed study on the pedigrees of male blue foxes in whose offspring the sex ratio significantly deviates from 1:1 indicate that this character is transmitted from fathers to sons without the deterioration of other commercially valuable characters. It is presumed that the significant deviation of sex ratio from 1:1 in the offspring of some male blue foxes is determined by genetic factors.