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Rodrigues fruit bats (Pteropus rodricensis, Megachiroptera: Pteropodidae) retain genetic diversity despite population declines and founder events

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Abstract

Fruit bats of the genus Pteropus are important contributors to ecosystem maintenance on islands through their roles as pollinators and seed dispersers. However, island faunas are the most prone to extinction and there is a real need to assess the possible genetic implications of population reductions in terms of extinction risk. An effective method of ameliorating extinction risk in endangered species is the establishment of captive populations ex situ. The effectiveness of captive breeding programmes may be assessed by comparing the genetic variability of captive colonies to that of wild counterparts. Here, we use polymorphic microsatellite loci to assess genetic variability in wild, critically endangered Rodrigues fruit bats (Pteropus rodricensis, Dobson 1878) and we compare this variability to that in a captive colony. We document remarkable conservation of genetic variability in both the wild and captive populations, despite population declines and founder events. Our results demonstrate that the wild population has withstood the negative effects of population reductions and that captive breeding programmes can fulfil the goals of retaining genetic diversity and limiting inbreeding.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dublin Zoo for funding this project, Enterprise Ireland for a research grant to JOB (Grant No.: BR/2001/226) and The Lubee Bat Conservancy for a grant to GFM for development of microsatellite markers. Additional thanks to the staff of Dublin Zoo for assisting in the collection of skin samples and to V. Powell (Manchester Metropolitan University) and V. Tataya (Mauritian Wildlife Foundation) for skin samples from Rodrigues Island. D. Doyle, J. Carolan, and L. Bailey provided technical assistance and S. Mariani provided useful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mammal Research Group, School of Biological and Environmental Science, Science Education and Research Centre West, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, 4, Ireland

    John O’Brien & Thomas J. Hayden

  2. Dublin Zoo, Phoenix Park, Dublin, 8, Ireland

    John O’Brien

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, 1416 Circle Drive, Knoxville, TN, 37996-1610, USA

    Gary F. McCracken

  4. Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR 5558-Bât Mendel, 43 Bd 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, Cedex, France

    Ludovic Say

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  1. John O’Brien
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Correspondence to John O’Brien.

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O’Brien, J., McCracken, G.F., Say, L. et al. Rodrigues fruit bats (Pteropus rodricensis, Megachiroptera: Pteropodidae) retain genetic diversity despite population declines and founder events. Conserv Genet 8, 1073–1082 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-006-9263-1

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