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When studies employed temporally spaced sampling, they typically relied on a limited number of genetic markers to characterize population‐level patterns of genetic diversity (e.g., a fragment of the mitochondrial DNA control region and/or 5–24 microsatellite loci Bouzat, Lewin, & Paige, Eldridge et al., Miller & Waits, Nyström, Angerbjörn, & Dalén, Ugelvig, Nielsen, Boomsma, & Nash, Wisely, Buskirk, Fleming, McDonald, & Ostrander, ). Previously, there were few examples of direct investigations of changes in genetic variation in natural populations before and after a known bottleneck event. Most studies have focused on the decline phase of bottlenecks (e.g., England et al., Spencer, Neigel, & Leberg, ), while far fewer have examined the recovery phase. Many empirical studies have examined the genetic consequences of bottlenecks indirectly, either in natural populations postdecline (for early examples, see O'Brien et al., Packer et al., ) or in experimental settings (Leberg, ). Declining populations often experience genetic bottlenecks, where effective population sizes become very small and the number of allelic variants in the gene pool rapidly diminishes. A broader understanding of the genetic consequences of population decline is of fundamental importance for species restoration, as standing levels of genetic diversity are associated with the probability of long‐term population persistence (Frankham,, Frankham et al., ), ability to survive novel disease threats (Smith, Acevedo‐Whitehouse, & Pedersen, ) and adaptation to changing environments (Barrett & Schluter, Jump, Marchant, & Peñuelas, ).