Dutta Trishna, Sharma Sandeep, Maldonado Jesús E, Panwar Hemendra Singh, Seidensticker John
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, United States of America.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, United States of America; Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 May 6;10(5):e0123384. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123384. eCollection 2015.
Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are endemic to the Indian subcontinent. As a result of continued habitat loss and degradation over the past century, sloth bear populations have been in steady decline and now exist only in isolated or fragmented habitat across the entire range. We investigated the genetic connectivity of the sloth bear meta-population in five tiger reserves in the Satpura-Maikal landscape of central India. We used noninvasively collected fecal and hair samples to obtain genotypic information using a panel of seven polymorphic loci. Out of 194 field collected samples, we identified 55 individuals in this meta-population. We found that this meta-population has moderate genetic variation, and is subdivided into two genetic clusters. Further, we identified five first-generation migrants and signatures of contemporary gene flow. We found evidence of sloth bears in the corridor between the Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves, and our results suggest that habitat connectivity and corridors play an important role in maintaining gene flow in this meta-population. These corridors face several anthropogenic and infrastructure development threats that have the potential to sever ongoing gene flow, if policies to protect them are not put into action immediately.
懒熊（马来熊属）是印度次大陆特有的物种。由于在过去一个世纪里栖息地持续丧失和退化，懒熊种群数量一直在稳步下降，如今仅存在于整个分布范围内孤立或碎片化的栖息地中。我们调查了印度中部萨特普拉 - 迈卡尔地区五个老虎保护区内懒熊集合种群的基因连通性。我们使用通过非侵入性方式收集的粪便和毛发样本，利用一组七个多态性位点来获取基因型信息。在194份野外采集的样本中，我们在这个集合种群中识别出了55个个体。我们发现这个集合种群具有适度的遗传变异，并被细分为两个基因簇。此外，我们识别出了五个第一代迁移个体以及当代基因流的特征。我们在卡纳和彭奇老虎保护区之间的走廊发现了懒熊存在的证据，我们的研究结果表明，栖息地连通性和走廊在维持这个集合种群的基因流方面发挥着重要作用。这些走廊面临着多种人为和基础设施发展带来的威胁，如果不立即采取保护政策，这些威胁有可能切断正在进行的基因流。
