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Minimum population size, genetic diversity, and social structure of the Asian elephant in Cat Tien National Park and its adjoining areas, Vietnam, based on molecular genetic analyses

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Abstract

Vietnam’s elephant population that has suffered severe declines during the past three decades is now believed to number 60–80 individuals in the wild. Cat Tien National Park is thought to be one of the key areas for the recovery of Vietnam’s elephants. We carried out a molecular genetic study of elephants in Cat Tien National Park and its adjoining areas with the objectives of estimating minimum population size, assessing genetic diversity, and obtaining insights into social organization. We obtained a minimum population size of 11 elephants based on a combination of unique nuclear microsatellite genotypes and mitochondrial haplotypes. While mitochondrial diversity based on a 600-base pair segment was high in this small sample of individuals, the six microsatellite loci examined showed low diversity and the signature of a recent population bottleneck. Along with nuclear genetic depauperation of Cat Tien’s elephants, we also report disruption of normal social organization, with different matrilines having coalesced into a single social group because of anthropogenic disturbance. The results emphasize the critical condition of this elephant population and the need for urgent conservation measures if this population is to be saved.

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Acknowledgments

Field work under this project was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—Asian Elephant Conservation Fund through WWF-Vietnam, while laboratory work was funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and in part by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—Asian Elephant Conservation Fund grant to Prithiviraj Fernando and Don Melnick at Columbia University, New York. We thank Mr. Tran Van Mui (Director of Cat Tien NP), Mr. Gert Polet (Chief Technical Advisor of WWF/Cat Tien NP Conservation Project) and Mr. Bui Huu Manh (GIS specialist Cat Tien NP), for their help and support during the fieldwork. The genetic analyses were carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Centre for Environmental Research and Conservation, Columbia University. We thank Prof. Don Melnick and Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando of Columbia University for their support and help, and Prof. V. Nanjundiah at the department of Molecular Reproduction, Development, and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, for extending to us facilities in his laboratory. Raghuram Narasimhan and Anisha Thapa provided GIS support at the Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, a division of Asian Nature Conservation Foundation. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped improve our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    T. N. C. Vidya & R. Sukumar

  2. Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, c/o Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Surendra Varma

  3. Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Hoang Quoc Viet Street, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Nguyen X. Dang

  4. Forest Protection Department of Cat Tien NP, Tan Phu District, Dong Nai Province, Vietnam

    T. Van Thanh

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  1. T. N. C. Vidya
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  2. Surendra Varma
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  3. Nguyen X. Dang
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  4. T. Van Thanh
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  5. R. Sukumar
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Correspondence to R. Sukumar.

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Vidya, T.N.C., Varma, S., Dang, N.X. et al. Minimum population size, genetic diversity, and social structure of the Asian elephant in Cat Tien National Park and its adjoining areas, Vietnam, based on molecular genetic analyses. Conserv Genet 8, 1471–1478 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-007-9301-7

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