Conservation genetics is a term that describes the process of retaining genetic diversity within small or endangered populations. As such, it is most often used in the context of population genetics then within the general genetics literature. Genetic diversity is defined as having multiple alleles at every locus. It is important to retain genetic diversity because it allows a population to stay more resistant to disease and more responsive to changing ecological conditions. Only populations may have multiple (more than two) forms of a particular gene. Since an individual inherits one copy of their genome (the haploid number of chromosomes) from the mother and one copy from their father, the individual is limited to only two copies of the same gene.

Different forms of the same gene are called alleles. When the alleles are the same at a particular locus, then the...