Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32117616›Full record

ArticlePeerJ2020

Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (

Supriya Bhatt, Suvankar Biswas, Krithi Karanth, Bivash Pandav, Samrat Mondol

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Article in PeerJ, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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2citing papers in PubMed
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3 · Its place in the literature

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2 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Supriya Bhatt *Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.
Suvankar Biswas *Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.
Krithi KaranthCentre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, India.
Bivash PandavEndangered Species Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.
Samrat MondolAnimal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLarge carnivores maintain the stability and functioning of ecosystems. Currently, many carnivore species face declining population sizes due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. The leopard,

methodsWe collected faecal samples from the Terai-Arc landscape of northern India and identified 56 unique individuals using a panel of 13 microsatellite markers. We merged this data with already available 143 leopard individuals and assessed genetic structure at country scale. Subsequently, we investigated the demographic history of each identified subpopulations and compared genetic decline analyses with countrywide local extinction probabilities.

resultsOur genetic analyses revealed four distinct subpopulations corresponding to Western Ghats, Deccan Plateau-Semi Arid, Shivalik and Terai region of the north Indian landscape, each with high genetic variation. Coalescent simulations with microsatellite loci revealed a possibly human-induced 75-90% population decline between ∼120-200 years ago across India. Population-specific estimates of genetic decline are in concordance with ecological estimates of local extinction probabilities in these subpopulations obtained from occupancy modeling of the historic and current distribution of leopards in India.

conclusionsOur results confirm the population decline of a widely distributed, adaptable large carnivore. We re-iterate the relevance of indirect genetic methods for such species in conjunction with occupancy assessment and recommend that detailed, landscape-level ecological studies on leopard populations are critical to future conservation efforts. Our approaches and inference are relevant to other widely distributed, seemingly unaffected carnivores such as the leopard.

Indexed as

Carnivore conservationDemographic historyEndangered speciesGenetic variationLeopardphylogeographyPopulation subdivision

Identifiers

PMID32117616
PMCPMC7006512

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