National Recovery Plan for the Christmas Island Goshawk Accipiter fasciatus natalis
Inbreeding DepressionInbreeding Depression
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Inbreeding Depression
The risks of inbreeding depression increases with decreasing population size due to the increase in frequency of homozygous alleles. Populations at risk of inbreeding depression are probably a couple of dozen individuals or smaller in size which have been at that size for several generations, as a population contraction must last for several generations to lead to a significant loss of heterozygosity (Caughley & Sinclair 1994). Any action on the island which might permanently, rather than temporarily, reduce the number of mature individual Christmas Island Goshawks (such as permanent forest clearance rather than temporary storm damage) would raise the possibility of inbreeding depression as a concern in their conservation.