Genetic characterization of free-ranging Asiatic wild ass in Central Asia as a basis for future conservation strategies |
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Authors: | Petra Kaczensky Ekaterina Kovtun Rustam Habibrakhmanov Mahmoud-Reza Hemami Amirhossein Khaleghi John D C Linnell Eldar Rustamov Sergey Sklyarenko Chris Walzer Steffen Zuther Ralph Kuehn |
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Institution: | 1.Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology,University of Veterinary Medicine,Vienna,Austria;2.Norwegian Institute for Nature Research,Trondheim,Norway;3.Unit of Molecular Zoology, Chair of Zoology, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management,Technische Universit?t München,Freising,Germany;4.Altyn Emel National Park, Almaty office,Almaty,Kazakhstan;5.Department of Natural Resources,Isfahan University of Technology,Isfahan,Iran;6.Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation,Tehran,Iran;7.Ashgabat,Turkmenistan;8.Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan,Almaty,Kazakhstan;9.Wildlife Conservation Society,New York,USA;10.Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology,New Mexico State University,Las Cruces,USA |
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Abstract: | Loss of genetic diversity due to drift and inbreeding reduces a population’s ability to respond to environmental change and may result in inbreeding depression. The Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), regionally also known as Gobi khulan, Turkmen kulan, or Persian onager, has become confined to less than 3% of its historic distribution range. Remaining populations in Central Asia outside of the Mongolian Gobi are small and fragmented. Questions concerning subpopulation status remain disputed and concerns over the viability of these populations have been raised because of small size, past bottlenecks, or recent founder events. We used non-invasive faecal samples to assess the genetic diversity and divergence among Turkmen kulan and Persian onager from five free-ranging and one captive population from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran and compared their genetic constitution to the large autochthonous population in the Mongolian Gobi. We observed loss of genetic diversity (drift and inbreeding) in the captive and reintroduced populations as well as in one rapidly declining autochthonous population. Population differentiation and structure using microsatellites and mtDNA based phylogenetic analysis do not support the current separation of the autochthonous populations of Turkmen kulan and Persian onager into different subspecies, but rather suggest a cline with the Iranian population in Bahram-e-Goor at the southern end and the Turkmen population in Badhyz at the northern end falling into two distinct clusters, and the northern Iranian population in Touran being intermediate. We compare our findings to other population genetics studies of equids and discuss the implications of our findings for the future conservation of the Asiatic wild ass in the region. |
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