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Genetic diversity and population structure of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) in France

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Abstract

During the last century, the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) suffered a dramatic decline in Europe. In France, the same pattern of sharp decline was observed with local extinctions in many regions. Before the recolonisation process, two main populations still remained along the Atlantic coast and in the Massif Central. To investigate the impact of this decline on the genetic diversity and structure of the French otter population, tissue samples of 144 otter carcasses from road kills that were found during 1992–2011 along the Atlantic coast and in the Massif Central were used. They were analysed using 10 microsatellites loci. Observed (H o = 0.64) and expected heterozygosity (H e = 0.62) were moderate, but consistent with results found in other European populations. The bottleneck test showed an excess of heterozygotes, providing evidence of a recent decline. There was evidence for weak but significant allelic frequencies divergence between otters from the Atlantic coast and those from the Massif Central (F st = 0.040, p < 0.05), probably resulting from their isolation prior to the recolonisation process. As the French otter population has been expanding for several years, genetic intermixing is now occurring. Although this expansion has not yet genetically homogenised all populations, this is may be a matter a time.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Natural History Museum of Orleans for the collection, the centralisation and the storage of otter tissue samples, the departmental services of the ONCFS (Loire-Atlantique, Vendée, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, Gironde, Aveyron, Lot, Lozère, Cantal, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Corrèze, Creuse, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Indre) to have facilitated this collection in many regions of France, the LPO (Vendée, Charente-Maritime, Charente, Pays de la Loire), the Natural Hstory Museum of Nantes et M. Didier Monfort, Catiche Productions, GREGE, the Parc Interregional of Marais Poitevin and PRO LUTRA association for their active collaboration in the survey, collection and storage of dead otters. Willy Dabin CNRS/ Pelagis for the odontochronological analyses. For their advice in laboratory and statistical analyses, we would like to thank especially Laurent Gohy, Virginie Hutsemeykers and Clotilde Lambinet, Marie-France Larigauderie, Marie-des-Neiges de Bellefroid and Amina Brahimi. For the map of France, we wish to thank Arnaud Beckers. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their careful revision and comments. This study has been partly supported by the Natural History Museum of Orleans, the DREAL Poitou-Charentes, the regional direction Centre/Ile-de-France of the ONCFS and Catiche Productions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Anne-Laure Geboes

  2. Museum des Sciences Naturelles d’Orleans, Orleans, France

    René Rosoux

  3. VetAgro Sup/Lyon Laboratoire de Toxicologie, Lyon, France

    Charles Lemarchand

  4. Office National de la Chasse et la Faune Sauvage/Région Centre, Paris, France

    Eric Hansen

  5. Zoogeography Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Roland Libois

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  1. Anne-Laure Geboes
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  2. René Rosoux
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Correspondence to Anne-Laure Geboes.

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Communicated by: Karol Zub

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Geboes, AL., Rosoux, R., Lemarchand, C. et al. Genetic diversity and population structure of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) in France. Mamm Res 61, 121–129 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-015-0258-5

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