Alpine finch at risk, populations increasingly less connected - Nature. The survival of the Alpine finch is threatened by the reduced exchange of individuals (and therefore genes) between the different reproductive areas, which are increasingly distant from each other.
High levels of inbreeding were observed: 20% of the sampled individuals were in fact born to parents related to each other at least at the level of first cousins, if not even more closely. The combined effects of habitat reduction, poor dispersal, and inbreeding effects can easily lead to local extinctions.