GenotypeMicrosatellite genotyping data for 837 brown bears.

In Japan, all citizens are covered by the national insurance system. Children’s medical expenses are subsidized by local government co-payments. This removed most economic barriers to visiting medical facilities, geographical obstacles to pediatric medical services remain, including distance to medical facilities and transportation time. However, information on geographic accessibility of pediatric inpatient services is scarce. In this study, I calculated the proportion of children resident in areas accessible to pediatric inpatient service providers within 30 and 60 minutes by automobile. Calculations were based on addresses of hospitals that met criteria for high reimbursement for secondary and tertiary pediatric inpatient services, data for residential blocks, and data for the average velocity of an automobile. In total, 88.0% of children lived within 30 minutes of these hospitals and 95.2% of children lived within 60 minutes. The percentage of children with such access was higher in regions with high population density (e.g., Kanto and Kinki) compared with regions with low population density (e.g., Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Shikoku). Furthermore, regions with high population density also had high rates of children that lived within reach of hospitals with at least five full-time pediatricians.

Iwate Prefecture is the largest prefecture on Honshu, and the second largest in all of Japan, after Hokkaido. It also has the second lowest population density, again after Hokkaido. Iwate Prefecture's total population is just above 1,330,000, with 330,700 in the capital city of Morioka. The famous Buddhist temples in Hiraizumi, Chuson-ji and Motsu-ji, attract many tourists each year, as well as Morioka Castle, located in Morioka City. Unfortunately, Iwate Prefecture has been victim to many natural disasters over the years, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods.

Robust estimates of demographic parameters are critical for effective wildlife conservation and management, but are difficult to obtain for elusive species. We estimated the breeding and adult population sizes, as well as the minimum population size, in a high-density brown bear population on the Shiretoko Peninsula, in Hokkaido, Japan, using DNA-based pedigree reconstruction. A total of 1,288 individuals, collected in and around the Shiretoko Peninsula between 1998 and 2020, were genotyped at 21 microsatellite loci. Among them, 499 individuals were identified by intensive genetic sampling conducted in two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) mainly by noninvasive methods (e.g., hair and fecal DNA). Among them, both parents were assigned for 330 bears, and either maternity or paternity was assigned to 47 and 76 individuals, respectively. The subsequent pedigree reconstruction indicated a range of breeding and adult (≥4 years old) population sizes: 128–173 for female breeders and 66–91 male breeders, and 155–200 for female adults and 84–109 male adults. The minimum population size was estimated to be 449 (252 females and 197 males) in 2019. Long-term continuous genetic sampling prior to a short-term intensive survey would enable parentage to be identified in a population with a high probability, thus enabling reliable estimates of breeding population size for elusive species. --

Individual dispersal plays an important role in preserving genetic diversity in density-fluctuating populations of arvicoline rodents. When habitats are fragmented and dispersal between habitats is severely constrained, genetic diversity can be lost. Here, I investigated whether genetic diversity in the gray-sided vole Myodes rufocanus was preserved in an intensive farming region in Japan, where voles inhabited isolated windbreak forests along the borders of plowed lands. Genetic structure was examined in 673 vole samples (330 in spring and 343 in fall) collected at 34 windbreak forests located 0.35–20 km apart. A part of the control region (425 bp) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was sequenced in 673 voles, yielding 76 haplotypes. Genetic differentiation of maternally inherited mtDNA among trapping sites was markedly lower in males than in females in both seasons, indicating strong male-biased dispersal. Genotypes at six microsatellite DNA loci were determined in 494 voles (245 in spring and 249 in fall) from 18 trapping sites, and loci harbored 16–24 alleles. The mean number of alleles per locus (allelic diversity) at trapping sites was positively correlated with the number of examined individuals (density) in both seasons, and the relationship was very similar to that of a previous study performed in much less fragmented populations. Genetic differentiation of microsatellite DNA among trapping sites decreased considerably from spring to fall. In a STRUCTURE analysis with a most probable cluster number of two, closer trapping sites showed more similar mean values of cluster admixture proportions. The present findings indicate that gene flow among isolated windbreak forests, which occurred mainly by dispersal of males, was not restrained in this intensive farming region. Furthermore, the results suggest that genetic diversity in the study population was preserved as well as in less fragmented populations. Methods 1. Tissue samples were collected two times (spring and fall) in 2007 at 34 trapping sites in Tokachi Plain in Hokkaido, Japan. During each trapping session, 30 Sherman-type traps were arranged in a 3 × 10 grid pattern at an interval of 10 m (~0.3 ha) for 2 nights (i.e., a total of 60 trap-nights per session). Upon capture, three toes (one per foot) of each vole were clipped, sex was determined, and the vole was released. 2. Genomic DNA was extracted using the conventional phenol-chloroform method. 3-1. For mtDNA haplotype data, partial nucleotide sequences of the mtDNA control region were sequenced as described previously (de Guia et al., 2007). Here, the most variable part (425 bp) was sequenced using the internal primer HIP8 (de Guia et al., 2007).
de Guia, A. P., Saitoh, T., Ishibashi, Y., & Abe, H. (2007). Taxonomic status of the vole in Daikoku Island, Hokkaido, Japan: examination based on morphology and genetics. Mammal Study, 32(1), 33–44. doi:10.3106/1348-6160(2007)32[33:TSOTVI]2.0.CO;2 3-2. For microsatellite genotype data, six microsatellite loci (MSCRB-01, -04, -07, -09, -11, and -13) were genotyped as described previously (Ishibashi and Takahashi, 2021). Ishibashi Y, Takahashi K. (2021) Role of individual dispersal in genetic resilience in fluctuating populations of the gray-sided vole Myodes rufocanus. Ecology and Evolution, 11(7), 3407–3421. doi:10.1002/ece3.7300.