The null hypothesis stated that there is no difference in genetic variability or heterozygosity between the wild and founding populations. Based on the statistical Chi-square test comparison of genetic diversity between populations, the null hypothesis is valid and should not be rejected. The SPSS statistical results yielded a chi-square value of 0.773a and a P-value of 0.942 (Table 2). 0.942 is greater than 0.05, which means that statistically, there is no significant difference between the two populations. Thus, the wild and founding population are not different. Surprisingly, even with the rapid decline in the simulated black-footed ferret population and with over 50% of the population dead, the 0.942 value illustrates that insignificant
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Planned breeding kept 0.1231 more heterozygosity than the random breeding did (Table 3). Also, after eight generations of breeding the 12 founders in the planned breeding, only 0.0013 heterozygosity was lost from the founding population that rose up after the wild population crash, which is higher than the value for the random breeding at 0.8769 that lost 0.1244 heterozygosity in the same amount of time (Table 3). The planned breeding conserved 95.69 times more heterozygosity than the random did (Table 3). If the planned breeding population was released into the wild it would be released with much greater genetic diversity than the random breeding individuals, so even when conservation biologists no longer have control over who mates with who, the ferrets would have a more diversified gene pool for their random mating. Therefore, there would be less of a chance that certain alleles would be lost prematurely or so soon after their release. To further the importance of having high allele counts in the ferret population upon release, a study on the mortality of Siberian polecats and black-footed ferrets released onto prairie dog colonies was done and according to it, captivity-induced behavioural changes affected the survival of captive-born, cage-reared
Planned breeding kept 0.1231 more heterozygosity than the random breeding did (Table 3). Also, after eight generations of breeding the 12 founders in the planned breeding, only 0.0013 heterozygosity was lost from the founding population that rose up after the wild population crash, which is higher than the value for the random breeding at 0.8769 that lost 0.1244 heterozygosity in the same amount of time (Table 3). The planned breeding conserved 95.69 times more heterozygosity than the random did (Table 3). If the planned breeding population was released into the wild it would be released with much greater genetic diversity than the random breeding individuals, so even when conservation biologists no longer have control over who mates with who, the ferrets would have a more diversified gene pool for their random mating. Therefore, there would be less of a chance that certain alleles would be lost prematurely or so soon after their release. To further the importance of having high allele counts in the ferret population upon release, a study on the mortality of Siberian polecats and black-footed ferrets released onto prairie dog colonies was done and according to it, captivity-induced behavioural changes affected the survival of captive-born, cage-reared