A standard set of polymorphic microsatellites for threatened mountain ungulates (Caprini,Artiodactyla)

Nearly 70% of the world's mountain ungulate taxa are endangered. The availability of a standard set of DNA markers for forensic and molecular ecology studies would help to establish conservation programs and detect poaching activities of these endangered taxa. We tested 60 published microsatellite primer pairs from bovids (cattle, sheep and goat) on 49 individuals from 11 taxa including six wild goat‐like species (Capra spp.), three divergent wild sheep (Ovis spp.), and two chamois (Rupicapra spp.) species. Approximately 30 microsatellites amplified a microsatellite‐like PCR product in all three genera, and with the exception of ILST097, nearly all the loci were polymorphic within most of the 11 species.