Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Identification of conservation priority units in the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Conservation Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Conservation biologists often deal with species that have small, fragmented populations throughout their range, making it necessary to prioritize populations for management. Genetics provides tools to assist with prioritization according to the levels and distribution of genetic diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness. Many studies have used nuclear microsatellite loci to measure genetic diversity in disparate populations and mitochondrial DNA to assess genetic distinctiveness. However, comparing metrics based on microsatellite genotypes ascertained in different laboratories is complicated by the selection of different loci with distinct nucleotide repeat motifs. This issue may be resolved by comparing metrics to a well-characterized reference population with shared microsatellite markers. The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, is an endangered species with 50–60% of populations in India and Sri Lanka, and small, fragmented populations throughout southeast and insular Asia. We assessed range-wide genetic diversity of the Asian elephant by directly comparing allelic diversity and heterozygosity estimates from 35 populations, overcoming marker selection bias by calibrating metrics to a large population on the Nakai Plateau, Lao PDR, genotyped at 25 loci. We coupled these results with mtDNA analysis to evaluate genetic distinctiveness and identify potential conservation management units. We found the greatest diversity in the populations of southeast Asia and the greatest genetic distinctiveness among the subspecies designations, particularly Borneo and Sumatra, and other southeast Asian populations. The populations of southeast Asia, albeit small, fragmented, and at high risk of extirpation, contain valuable diversity and distinctiveness and are thus of high priority for the preservation of the Asian elephant.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data from the yardstick population (Nakai Plateau, 25 microsatellite loci) and the R code used to calculate the diversity ratios have been deposited in DRYAD: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vdncjsz11. Genetic diversity data from populations used for comparison to the yardstick population are provided in Table 1. Accession numbers for all mtDNA sequences used in the evolutionary distinctiveness analyses are shown in Supplementary Table 2.

References

  • Ahlering MA, Hedges S, Johnson A, Tyson M, Schuttler SG, Eggert LS (2011) Genetic diversity, social structure and conservation value of the elephants of the Nakai Plateau, Lao PDR, based on non-invasive sampling. Conserv Genet 12:413–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballard JWO, Whitlock MC (2004) The incomplete natural history of mitochondria. Mol Ecol 13:729–744

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bandelt H, Forster P, Röhl A (1999) Median-joining networks for inferring intraspecific phylogenies. Mol Biol Evol 16:37–48

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blake S, Hedges S (2004) Sinking the flagship: the case of forest elephants in Asia and Africa. Conserv Biol 18:1191–1202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budd K (2021) Conservation genetics of conflict in the asian elephant, Elephas maximus. University of Missouri–Columbia (PhD dissertation). https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/88043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty R, Kimmel M, Stivers DN, Davison LJ, Deka R (1997) Relative mutation rates at di-, tri-, and tetranucleotide loci. Proc Nat Acad of Sci USA 94(3):1041–1046

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty S, Boominathan D, Desai AA, Vidya TNC (2014) Using genetic analyses to estimate population size, sex ratio, and social organization in an asian elephant population in conflict with humans in Alur, southern India. Conserv Genet 15:897–907

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choudhury A, Lahiri Choudhury DK, Desai A, Duckworth JW, Easa PS, Johnsingh AJT, Fernando P, Hedges S, Gunawardena M, Kurt F, Karanth U, Lister A, Menon V, Riddle H, Rübel A, Wikramanayake E, IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (2008) Elephas maximus. IUCN Red List Threat Species. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T7140A12828813.en

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colli L, Milanesi M, Vajana E, Iamartino D, Bomba L, Puglisi F, Del Corvo M, Nicolazzi EL, Ahmed SSE, Herrera JRV, Cruz L, Zhang S, Liang A, Hua G, Yang L, Hao X, Zuo F, Lai S-J, Wang S, Liu R, Gong Y, Mokhber M, Ym Mao, Guan F, Vlaic A, Vlaic B, Ramunno L, Cosenza G, Ahmad A, Soysal I, Ünal E, Ketudat-Cairns M, Garcia JF, Utsunomiya YT, Baruselli PS, Amaral MEJ, Parnpai R, Drummond MG, Galbusera P, Burton J, Hoal E, Yusnizar Y, Sumantri C, Moioli B, Valentini A, Stella A, Williams JL, Ajmone-Marsan P (2018) New insights on water buffalo genomic diversity and post-domestication migration routes from medium density SNP chip data. Front Genet. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2018.00053

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Comstock KE, Wasser SK, Ostrander EA (2000) Polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci identified in the african elephant (Loxodonta africana). Mol Ecol 9:1004–1006

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cornuet JM, Luikart G (1996) Description and power analysis of two tests for detecting recent population bottlenecks from allele frequency data. Genetics 144:2001–2014

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cracraft J (1982) Geographic differentiation, cladistics, and vicariance biogeography: reconstructing the tempo and mode of evolution. Am Zool 22:411–424. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/22.2.411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Groot GA, Nowak C, Skrbinsek T, Andersen LW, Aspi J, Fumagalli L, Godinho R, Harms V, Jansman HAH, Liberg O, Marucco F, Myslajek RW, Nowak S, Pilot M, Randi E, Reinhardt I, Smietana W, Szewczyk M, Taberlet P, Vila C, Munoz-Fuentes V (2016) Decades of population genetic research reveal the need for harmonization of molecular markers: the grey wolf Canis lupus as a case study. Mamm Rev 46:44–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duckworth W, Hedges S (1998). Tracking Tigers: a review of the status of tiger, asian elephant, gaur, and banteng in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Yunnan (China), with recommendations for future conservation action, 1st edn. WWF Indochina Programme, Hanoi

    Google Scholar 

  • Eggert LS, Ramakrishnan U, Mundy NI, Woodruff DS (2000) Polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers in the african elephant (Loxodonta africana) and their use in the asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Mol Ecol 9:2223–2225

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eggert LS, Beadell JS, McClung A, McIntosh CE, Fleischer RC (2009) Evolution of microsatellite loci in the adaptive radiation of hawaiian honeycreepers. J Hered 100:137–147. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esn111

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eggert LS, Ruiz-Lopez M (2011) Analysis of fecal DNA samples to estimate size and sex ratio of the elephant population at Seima biodiversity conservation area in Cambodia using capture-recapture methods. Report to the Wildlife Conservation Society

  • Eggert LS, Ruiz-Lopez M (2012a) Analysis of fecal DNA samples to estimate the sex ratio and size of the sepon asian elephant population in the Lao PDR using capture-recapture methods. Report to the Wildlife Conservation Society

  • Ellegren H (2004) Microsatellites: simple sequences with complex evolution. Nat Rev Genet 5:435–445. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1348

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernando P, Lande R (2000) Molecular genetics and behavioral analysis of social organization in the asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 48(84):84–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernando P, Pfrender ME, Encalada SE, Lande R (2000) Mitochondrial DNA variation, phylogeography and population structure of the asian elephant. Heredity 84:362–372

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernando P, Vidya TNC, Melnick DJ (2001) Isolation and characterization of tri- and tetranucleotide microsatellite loci in the asian elephant, Elephas maximus. Mol Ecol Notes 1:232–233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fernando P, Vidya TNC, Payne J, Stuewe M, Davison G, Alfred RJ, Andau P, Bosi E, Kilbourn A, Melnick DJ (2003) DNA analysis indicates that asian elephants are native to Borneo and are therefore a high priority for conservation. PLoS Biol 1(1):e6

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fleischer RC, Perry EA, Muralidharan K, Stevens EE, Wemmer CM (2001) Phylogeography of the asian elephant (Elephas maximus) based on mitochondrial DNA. Evolution 55(9):1882–1892

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frankham R (2005) Genetics and extinction. Biol Conserv 126(2):131–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galtier N, Nabholz B, Glémin S, Hurst GDD (2009) Mitochondrial DNA as a marker of molecular diversity: a reappraisal. Mol Ecol 18:4541–4550

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gobush KS, Edwards CTT, Balfour D, Wittemyer G, Maisels F, Taylor RD (2021) Loxodonta africana. IUCN Red List Threat Species 2021:e.T181008073A181022663

    Google Scholar 

  • Goossens B, Sharma R, Othman N, Kun-Rodrigues C, Sakong R, Ancrenaz M, Ambu LN, Jue NK, O’Neill RJ, Bruford MW, Chikhi L (2016) Habitat fragmentation and genetic diversity in natural population of the Bornean elephant: implications for conservation. Biol Conserv 196:80–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray TNE, Vidya YNC, Potdar S, Bharti DK, Sovanna P (2014) Population size estimation of an asian elephant population in eastern Cambodia through non-invasive mark-recapture sampling. Conserv Genet 15:803–810

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He C, Du J, Zhu D, Zhang L (2020) Population viability analysis of small population: a case study for asian elephant in China. Integr Zool 15:350–362

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hedges S (2006) Conservation. In: Fowler ME, Mikota SK (eds) Biology, Medicine and surgery of elephants. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp 475–490

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hindrikson M, Remm J, Pilot M, Godinho R, Stronen AV, Baltrūnaité L, Cazanomska SD, Leonard JA, Randi E, Nowak C, Åkesson M, López-Bao JV, Álvares F, Llaneza L, Echegaray J, Vilà C, Ozolins J, Rungis D, Aspi J, Paule L, Skrbinšek T, Saarma U (2016) Wolf population genetics in Europe: a systematic review, meta-analysis and suggestions for conservation and management. Biol Rev 92:1601–1629. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12298

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoban S (2018) Integrative conservation genetics: prioritizing populations using climate predictions, adaptive potential and habitat connectivity. Mol Ecol Res 18:14–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoban S, Bruford MW, Funk WC, Galbusera P, Griffith MP, Grueber CE, Heuertz M, Hunter ME, Hvilsom C, Stroil BK, Kershaw F, Khoury CK, Laikre L, Lopes-Fernandes M, MacDonald AJ, Mergeay J, Meek M, Mittan C, Mukassabi TA, O’Brien D, Ogden R, Palma-Silva C, Ramakrishnan U, Segelbacher G, Shaw RE, Sjögren-Gulve P, Veličković N, Vernesi C (2021) Global commitments to conserving and monitoring genetic diversity are now necessary and feasible. Bioscience 71:964–976. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab054

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Holland MM, Parson W (2010) GeneMarker HID: a reliable software tool for the analysis of forensic STR data. J Forensic Sci 56(1):29–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Isaac NJB, Turvey ST, Collen B, Waterman, Baillie JEM (2007) Mammals on the EDGE: conservation priorities based on threat and phylogeny. PLoS ONE 2(3):e296

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jombart T (2008) Adegenet: a R package for the multivariate analysis of genetic markers. Bioinformatics 24(11):1403–1405

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jombart T, Ahmed I (2011) Adegenet 1.3-1: new tools for the analysis of genome-wide SNP data. Bioinformatics 27(21):3070–3071

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Karamanlidis AA, Skrbinsek T, de Gabriel Hernando M, Krambokoukis L, Munoz-Fuentes V, Bailey Z, Nowak C, Stonen AV (2018) History-driven population structure and asymmetric gene flow in a recovering large carnivore at the rear-edge of its european range. Heredity 120:168–182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kearse M, Moir R, Wilson A, Stones-Havas S, Cheung M, Sturrock S, Thierer T (2012) Geneious basic: an integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics 28:1647–1649

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kembel SW, Cowan PD, Helmus MR, Cornwell WK, Morlon H, Ackerly DD, Blomberg SP, Webb CO (2010) Picante: R tools for integrating phylogenies and ecology. Bioinformatics 26(11):1463–1464

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kemf E, Jackson P (1995) Asian elephants in the wild. World Wide Fund for Nature, Gland

    Google Scholar 

  • Khounboline K (2011) Current status of asian elephants in Lao PDR. Gajah 35:4

    Google Scholar 

  • Kongrit C, Siripunkaw C, Brockelman WY, Akkarapatumwong V, Wright TF, Eggert LS (2008) Isolation and characterization of dinucleotide microsatellite loci in the asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Mol Ecol Res 8:175–177

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kusza S, Suchentrunk F, Pucher H, Mar KU, Zachos FE (2018) High levels of mitochondrial genetic diversity in asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from Myanmar. Hystrix 29:152–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Leberg PL (2002) Estimating allelic richness: effects of sample size and bottlenecks. Mol Ecol 11:2445–2449

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lei R, Brenneman RA, Schmitt DL, Louis EE Jr (2011) Genetic diversity in north american captive asian elephants. J Zool 286:38–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leigh JW, Bryant D (2015) POPART: full-feature software for haplotype network construction. Methods Ecol Evol 6(9):1110–1116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leimgruber P, Oo ZM, Myint Aung, Kelly DS, Wemmer C, Senior B, Songer M (2011) Current status of elephants in Myanmar. Gajah 35:76–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Moritz C (1994) Defining evolutionary significant units for conservation. Trends Ecol Evol 9(10):373–375

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moßbrucker AM, Apriyana I, Fickel J, Imron MA, Pudyatmoko S, Sumardi, Suryadi H (2015) Non-invasive genotyping of Sumatran elephants: implications for conservation. Trop Conserv Sci 8:745–759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdoch G (2008) Factbox – Threats Facing Asia’s Endangered Wild Elephants. Reuters, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy SM, Laufenberg JS, Clark JD, Davidson M, Belant JL, Garshelis DL (2018) Genetic diversity, effective population size, and structure among black bear populations in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA. Conserv Genet 19:1055–1067

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nei M, Maruyama T, Chakraborty R (1975) The bottleneck effect and genetic variability in populations. Evolution 29:1–10

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nyakaana S, Arctander P (1998) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the african elephant, Loxodonta africana. Mol Ecol 7:1436–1437

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osborn FV, Vinton MD (eds) (1999) Proceedings of the Conference: Conservation of the Asian Elephant in Indochina. Hanoi, Vietnam, 24–27 November 1999. FFI-Indochina. Asian Elephant Conservation Programme

  • Zar JH (2005) Spearman rank correlation. In: Armitage P, Colton T (eds) Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. Wiley, New York. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470011815.b2a15150

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Parida J, Sharma R, De R, Kalam T, Sedhupathy A, Digal DK, Reddy PA, Goyal SP, Puyravaud J-P, Davidar P (2022) Genetic characterisation of fragmented asian elephant populations with one recent extinction in its eastern-central indian range. Ecol Genet Genom 24:100132

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2018) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. Available at https://www.R-project.org

  • Reed DH, Frankham R (2003) Correlation between fitness and genetic diversity. Conserv Biol 17(1):230–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roca AL, Georgiadis N, O’Brien SJ (2005) Cytonuclear genomic dissociation in african elephant species. Nat Genet 37:96–100

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson C, McEvoy J, Oo ZM, Chit AM, Chan AN, Tonkyn D, Leimgruber P (2018) New elephant crisis in Asia—early warning signs from Myanmar. PLoS ONE 13(3):e0194113

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma R, Goossens B, Heller R, Rasterio R, Othman N, Bruford MW, Chikhi L (2018) Genetic analyses favour an ancient and natural origin of elephants on Borneo. Sci Rep 8:880

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Skrbinsek T, Jelencic M, Waits LP, Potocnik H, Kos I, Trontelj P (2012) Using a reference population yardstick to calibrate and compare genetic diversity reported in different studies: an example from the brown bear. Heredity 109:299–305

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley RRE, Jeffrey NW, Wringe BF, Dibacco C, Bradbury IR (2017) Genepopedit: a simple and flexible tool for manipulating multilocus molecular data in R. Mol Ecol Res 17:12–18

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Swofford DL (2002) PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods). Version 4. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Thitaram C, Somgird C, Mahasawangkul S, Angkavanich T, Roongsri R, Thongtip N, Colenbrander B, van Steenbeek F, Lenstra J J (2010) Genetic assessment of captive elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in Thailand. Conserv Genet 11:325–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thitaram T, Dejchaisri S, Somgrid C, Angkawanish T, Brown J, Phumphuay R, Chomdech S, Kangwanpong D (2015) Social group formation and genetic relatedness in reintroduced asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Thailand. Appl Anim Behav Sci 172:52–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22(22):4673–4680

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Toews DPL, Brelsford A (2012) The biogeography of mitochondrial and nuclear discordance in animals. Mol Ecol 21:3907–3930

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vidya TNC, Fernando P, Melnick DJ, Sukumar R (2005a) Population differentiation within and among asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population in southern India. Heredity 94:71–80

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vidya TNC, Fernando P, Melnick DJ, Sukumar R (2005b) Population genetic structure and conservation of asian elephants (Elephas maximus) across India. Anim Conserv 8:377–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidya TNC, Varma S, Dang NX, Van Thanh T, Sukumar R (2007) 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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidya TNC, Sukumar R, Melnick DJ (2009) Range-wide mtDNA phylogeography yields insights into the origins of asian elephants. Proc R Soc Lond B 276:893–902

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Villesen P (2007) FaBox: an online toolbox for fasta sequences. Mol Ecol Notes 7:965–968

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wiley EO (1978) The evolutionary species concept reconsidered. Syst Zool 27:17–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams C, Tiwari SK, Goswami VR, de Silva S, Kumar A, Baskaran N, Yoganand K, Menon V (2020) Elephas maximus. IUCN Red List Threat Species 2020:e.T7140A45818198

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Dong L, Lin L, Feng L, Yan F, Wang L, Guo X, Luo A (2015) Asian elephants in China: estimating population size and evaluating habitat suitability. PLoS ONE 10(5):e0124834

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Department of Forestry, the Government of Lao PDR’s Provincial and District Agriculture and Forestry Offices (PAFO and DAFO) and the Nam Theun 2 Power Company Ltd. (NTPC) for their assistance with the survey of the Nakai Plateau area. This work would not have been possible without the wildlife survey guides, technicians, and administrative support from the Nam Theun 2 Watershed Management and Protection Authority (WMPA).

Funding

This research was funded by the American Philosophical Society Lewis and Clark Field Grant and the TransWorld Airline Scholarship fund. KB was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This is KBS contribution number 2355.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Kris Budd

    Present address: Missouri Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia, MO, USA

  2. Joe C. Gunn

    Present address: Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

  3. Lauren L. Sullivan

    Present address: Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

  4. Lauren L. Sullivan

    Present address: W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, USA

  5. Lauren L. Sullivan

    Present address: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, MI, East Lansing, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Kris Budd, Joe C. Gunn, Lauren L. Sullivan & Lori S. Eggert

Authors
  1. Kris Budd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joe C. Gunn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lauren L. Sullivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lori S. Eggert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

KB designed the study and carried out the labwork, initial data analyses and writing of the first draft of the manuscript. JG and LLS conducted data analyses, data interpretation and contributed substantially to the writing of the final draft of the manuscript. LSE administered the project and contributed to the writing of the final draft of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lori S. Eggert.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 45.3 kb)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Budd, K., Gunn, J.C., Sullivan, L.L. et al. Identification of conservation priority units in the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus. Conserv Genet 24, 827–837 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-023-01542-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-023-01542-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation