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Non-invasive genetic study of the endangered Cantabrian brown bear (Ursus arctos)

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Abstract

The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) population present in the Cantabrian Mountains has suffered a dramatic decline in recent centuries and is now threatened with extinction. This situation has led to the development and implementation of a species recovery plan. To accomplish this plan, we need to improve our knowledge about the ecology, demography and genetics of this population. This paper presents the genetic analysis of the Cantabrian brown bear population using non-invasive samples (faeces and hairs) collected between 2004 and 2006. It was necessary to optimize a set of 18 microsatellite loci and a sex marker (several new multiplex reactions were developed) to obtain a suitable probability of identity among genotypes to work with this small, deeply structured population. Genotyping of 48 individuals was carried out using a two-step PCR protocol to increase the quality of the multilocus genotypes. Validation of genotypes was performed using a multi-tube approach combined with different software programmes to measure their error rate and reliability. Diversity in the Cantabrian population was low (H e = 0.51) and the population was markedly subdivided into two subpopulations (western and eastern) without current gene flow between them. The level of divergence between the two subpopulations (F st = 0.41) and the extremely low diversity in the eastern group (H e = 0.25) indicate that this has had an extremely low effective population size and had been isolated from the main group during the last century. Connectivity between the two subpopulations will be of prime importance for the long-term survival of this species in the Cantabrian Mountains.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by Grant CN-05-030 from the “Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio e Infraestructuras del Principado de Asturias” We wish to thank the “Junta de Castilla y León” for their economic support and for providing some of the samples; Miguel Rico, Juan Seijas and the “Guardería Rural del Principado de Asturias”, who also provided samples; Dr. Lissette Waits and the two anonymous reviewers who helped to improve this manuscript with their valuable comments, and Paul Barnes, who thoroughly reviewed the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Funcional (Genética), Facultad de Medicina 7°Planta, Universidad de Oviedo, C/Julián Clavería s/n, 33071, Oviedo, Spain

    Trinidad Pérez, Fernando Vázquez, Ana Corao, Jesús Albornoz & Ana Domínguez

  2. Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas (Ecología), Universidad de Oviedo, C/Catedrático Rodrigo Uría s/n, 33071, Oviedo, Spain

    Javier Naves & Alberto Fernández

  3. Department of Applied Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Avda. de María Luisa s/n, Pabellón del Perú, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Javier Naves & Alberto Fernández

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  1. Trinidad Pérez
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Correspondence to Trinidad Pérez.

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Pérez, T., Vázquez, F., Naves, J. et al. Non-invasive genetic study of the endangered Cantabrian brown bear (Ursus arctos). Conserv Genet 10, 291–301 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-008-9578-1

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