Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Biology, The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Tubney, OX13 5QL, Oxon, UK.
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, 617 S Beaver, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 11;13(1):11199. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36849-z.
Isolation of wildlife populations represents a key conservation challenge in the twenty-first century. This may necessitate consideration of translocations to ensure population viability. We investigated the potential population and genetic trajectory of a small, isolated tiger (Panthera tigris) population in Thailand's Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai forest complex across a range of scenarios. Using an individual-based, spatially-explicit population modelling approach, we simulate population and genetic trajectories and evaluate the relative impact of translocations from a related population. Population and genetic trajectories in our study were most sensitive to sex and number of individuals translocated and translocation frequency. Translocation of females produced consistently higher population, allelic richness, and heterozygosity compared to equal numbers of males. Despite population increases, declines in allelic richness and heterozygosity across simulations were stark, with simulations predicting a mean decline of allelic richness and heterozygosity of 46.5% and 53.5% without intervention, respectively. Translocations of four females every generation or every other generation were required to prevent substantial heterozygosity declines. While translocations could increase population size, they may fail to prevent long-term loss of genetic diversity in small populations unless applied frequently. This reinforces the importance of incorporating realistic processes of genetic inheritance and gene flow in modelling small populations.
在 21 世纪，隔离野生动物种群是一个关键的保护挑战。这可能需要考虑进行转移，以确保种群的生存能力。我们研究了泰国东巴耶延-考艾森林复合体中一个小型孤立虎（ Panthera tigris ）种群的潜在种群和遗传轨迹，涉及多种情景。我们使用基于个体的、空间明确的种群建模方法，模拟了种群和遗传轨迹，并评估了从相关种群进行转移的相对影响。在我们的研究中，种群和遗传轨迹对转移的个体的性别和数量以及转移频率最为敏感。与同等数量的雄性个体相比，雌性个体的转移始终能产生更高的种群、等位基因丰富度和杂合度。尽管种群数量有所增加，但模拟预测表明，在没有干预的情况下，等位基因丰富度和杂合度分别会急剧下降 46.5%和 53.5%。每代或每两代转移四只雌性个体是防止杂合度大幅下降所必需的。虽然转移可以增加种群规模，但如果不频繁进行，它们可能无法防止小种群中遗传多样性的长期丧失。这强调了在建模小种群时纳入遗传继承和基因流动的现实过程的重要性。
