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Genetic diversity, structure, and size of an endangered brown bear population threatened by highway construction in the Pindos Mountains, Greece

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Abstract

One of the major negative effects of roads is the creation of barriers to the movement of wildlife, ultimately disconnecting populations and increasing extinction risk. We collected genetic data from a threatened brown bear population in the central part of the Pindos mountain range in northwestern Greece to provide information about this, as yet genetically undescribed, population and to evaluate its status prior to the construction of a major highway. We used noninvasive genetic sampling methods and microsatellite analysis to investigate nuclear genetic diversity, population genetic structure, demographic history, relatedness within the population and estimated effective and total population size. Brown bears in the study area were found to possess a relatively high level of nuclear genetic diversity and low levels of inbreeding; the population did not show any signs of substructuring but seems to have gone through a genetic bottleneck in the recent past. The estimated effective population size was 29, and the total population size estimate obtained by two different methods was 33 and 51 individuals, respectively. Our results indicate a good conservation status of this bear population and provide baseline genetic data for the future evaluation of the effects on bears from the construction of a major highway, for monitoring the genetic status of this and other bear populations in Greece and for assessing gene flow in bear populations in southern Europe.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank G. Mertzanis and the field team of ARCTUROS for their assistance in the field in collecting the samples and the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food for providing the necessary research permits; all research activities carried out comply with the current laws of the Hellenic Republic. A big part of the genetic analyses was carried out at the labs of Wildlife Genetics International. We thank Renee Prive and David Paetkau for their outstanding work and cooperation and Kate Kendall for guidance in setting up the project. The first 2 years of the study (2003–2004) were carried out within the framework of the “Monitoring project on the evaluation of the impact of the construction of the Egnatia highway (stretch 4.1) on large mammals in the area of Grevena,” co-funded by Egnatia Odos, the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Planning & Public Works, and the E.U. (DG Regio); the final year of the study (2005) was funded by the NGO ARCTUROS.

Author Contributions

AAK, ED, and ZS conceived and designed the experiments, AAK and MGH collected the field data, AAK and MS performed the experiments, AAK, IK, and MS analyzed the data and MS, LP, ED and ZS contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. AAK, IK, LP, MS, ED and ZS wrote the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARCTUROS, Civil Society for the Protection and Management of Wildlife and the Natural Environment, Roggoti Str. 3, GR-54624, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Alexandros A. Karamanlidis & Miguel de Gabriel Hernando

  2. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO-1432, Ås, Norway

    Alexandros A. Karamanlidis

  3. Department of Phytology, Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, SK-96053, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Martin Straka & Ladislav Paule

  4. Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Elena Drosopoulou & Zacharias Scouras

  5. Division of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov Trg 6, HR-10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivna Kocijan

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  1. Alexandros A. Karamanlidis
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  2. Martin Straka
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  3. Elena Drosopoulou
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  4. Miguel de Gabriel Hernando
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  5. Ivna Kocijan
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  6. Ladislav Paule
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  7. Zacharias Scouras
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Correspondence to Alexandros A. Karamanlidis.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Karamanlidis, A.A., Straka, M., Drosopoulou, E. et al. Genetic diversity, structure, and size of an endangered brown bear population threatened by highway construction in the Pindos Mountains, Greece. Eur J Wildl Res 58, 511–522 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-011-0598-7

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