Population monitoring of snow leopards using noninvasive collection of scat samples: A pilot study

Animal Conservation

Volumn 11, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 401-411

  Janečka, Jan E ^a   Jackson, R ^b   Yuquang, Z ^c   Diqiang, L ^c   Munkhtsog, B ^d   Buckley Beason, V ^e   Murphy, W J ^a  

^a TEXAS A AND M UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Snow Leopard Conservancy   (United States)

^c RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FORESTRY   (China)

^d INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY   (Mongolia)

^e GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Genetics; Noninvasive; Scat; Snow leopard; Survey

Indexed keywords

ABUNDANCE; DNA; ENDANGERED SPECIES; MAMMAL; MONITORING; POPULATION DYNAMICS; POPULATION GENETICS; SPECIES CONSERVATION;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; INDIA; JAMMU AND KASHMIR; LADAKH; MONGOLIA; SOUTH ASIA; SOUTH GOBI;

FELIDAE; PANTHERA; UNCIA UNCIA; VULPES;

EID: 54049129691     PISSN: 13679430     EISSN: 14691795     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2008.00195.x     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Adams, J.R. & Waits, L.P. (2007). An efficient method for screening faecal DNA genotypes and detecting new individuals and hybrids in the red wolf (Canis rufus) experimental population area. Conserv. Genet. 8, 123-131.
2. Ahlborn, G. & Jackson, R. (1988). Marking in free-ranging snow leopards in west Nepal: A preliminary assessment. In 5th international snow leopard symposium: 25-49. Freeman, H. (Ed.). Dehradun, India: International Snow Leopard Trust and Wildlife Institute of India.
3. Ale, S.B., Yonzon, P. & Thapa, K. (2007). Recovery of snow leopard Uncia uncia in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal. Oryx 41, 89-92.
4. Bardeleben, C., Moore, R.L. & Wayne, R.K. (2005). A molecular phylogeny of the Canidae based on six nuclear loci. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 37, 815-831.
5. Broquet, T., Menard, N. & Petit, E. (2007). Noninvasive population genetics: A review of sample source, diet, fragment length and microsatellite motif effects on amplification success and genotyping error rates. Conserv. Genet. 8, 249-260.
6. Broquet, T. & Petit, E. (2004). Quantifying genotyping errors in noninvasive population genetics. Mol. Ecol. 13, 3601-3608.
7. Buchanan, F.C., Littlejohn, R.P., Galloway, S.M. & Crawford, A.M. (1993). Microsatellites and associated repetitive elements in the sheep genome. Mamm. Genome 4, 258-264.
8. Buckley-Beason, V.A., Johnson, W.E., Nash, W.G., Stanyon, R., Menninger, J.C., Driscoll, C.A., Howard, J., Bush, M., Page, J.E., Roelke, M.E., Stone, G., Martelli, P.P., Wen, C., Ling, L., Duraisingam, R.K., Lam, P.V. & O'Brien, S.J. (2006). Molecular evidence for species-level distinctions in clouded leopards. Curr. Biol. 16, 2371-2376.
9. n microsatellite markers. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 52, 922-927.
10. Creel, S., Spong, G., Sands, J.L., Rotella, J., Zeigle, J., Joe, L., Murphy, K.M. & Smith, D. (2003). Population size estimation in Yellowstone wolves with error-prone noninvasive microsatellite genotypes. Mol. Ecol. 12, 2003-2009.
11. Culver, M., Menotti-Raymond, M.A. & O'brien, S.J. (2001). Patterns of size homoplasy at 10 microsatellite loci in pumas (Puma concolor). Mol. Biol. Evol. 18, 1151-1156.
12. Davison, A., Birks, J.D.S., Brookes, R.C., Braithewaite, T.C. & Messenger, J.E. (2002). On the origin of faeces: Morphological versus molecular methods for surveying rare carnivores from their scats. J. Zool. (Lond.) 257, 141-143.
13. Driscoll, C.A., Menotti-Raymond, M., Roca, A.L., Hupe, K., Johnson, W.E., Geffen, E., Harley, E.H., Delibes, M., Pontier, D., Kitchener, A.C., Yamaguchi, N., O'Brien, S.J. & Macdonald, D.W. (2007). The Near Eastern origin of cat domestication. Science 317, 519-523.
14. Farrell, L.E., Roman, J. & Sunquist, M.E. (2000). Dietary separation of sympatric carnivores identified by molecular analysis of scats. Mol. Ecol. 9, 1583-1590.
15. Hussain, S. (2003). The status of the snow leopard in Pakistan and its conflict with local farmers. Oryx 37, 26-33.
16. Jackson, R. (1996). Home range, movements and habitat use of snow leopards (Uncia uncia) in Nepal. London: University of London.
17. Jackson, R. & Hunter, D.O. (1996). Snow leopard survey and conservation handbook. Fort Collins, CO: International Snow Leopard Trust and US Geological Survey.
18. Jackson, R.M., Roe, J.D., Wangchuk, R. & Hunter, D.O. (2006). Estimating snow leopard population abundance using photography and capture-recapture techniques. Wildl. Soc. B 34, 772-781.
19. Jae-Heup, K., Eizirik, E., O'Brien, S.J. & Johnson, W.E. (2001). Structure and patterns of sequence variation in the mitochondrial DNA control region of the great cats. Mitochondrion 1, 279-292.
20. Johnson, W.E., Eizirk, E., Pecon-Slattery, J., Murphy, W.J., Antunes, A., Teeling, E. & O'Brien, S.J. (2006). The late Miocene radiation of modern Felidae: A genetic assessment. Science 311, 73-77.
21. Kay, R.W., Gompper, M.E. & Ray, J.C. (2008). Landscape ecology of eastern coyotes based on large-scale estimates of abundance. Ecol. Appl. 18, 1014-1027.
22. Leonard, J.A., Wayne, R.K., Wheeler, J., Valadez, R., Guillen, S. & Vila, C. (2002). Ancient DNA evidence for old world origin of new world dogs. Science 298, 1613-1616.
23. Lopez-Giraldez, F., Andres, O., Domingo-Roura, X. & Bosch, M. (2006). Analyses of carnivore microsatellites and their intimate association with tRNA-derived SINES. BMC Genomics 7, 269.
24. McCarthy, T.M. & Chapron, G. (2003). Snow leopard survival strategy. Seattle, WA: International Snow Leopard Trust and Snow Leopard Network.
25. McCarthy, T.M., Fuller, T.K. & Munkhtsog, B. (2005). Movements and activities of snow leopards in southwestern Mongolia. Biol. Conserv. 124, 527-537.
26. McCarthy, T.M. & Munkhtsog, B. (1997). Preliminary assessment of snow leopard sign surveys in Mongolia. In 8th international snow leopard symposium: 57-65. Jackson, R. & Ahmad, A. (Eds). Islamabad, Pakistan: International Snow Leopard Trust and WWF-Pakistan.
27. McKelvey, K.S. & Schwartz, M.K. (2004). Genetic errors associated with population estimation using non-invasive molecular tagging: problems and new solutions. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 68, 439-448.
28. Menotti-Raymond, M., David, V.A., Lyons, L.A., Schaffer, A.A., Tomlin, J.F., Hutton, M.K. & O'Brien, S.J. (1999). A genetic linkage map of microsatellites in the domestic cat (Felis catus). Genomics 57, 9-23.
29. Menotti-Raymond, M., David, V.A., Chen, Z.Q., Menotti, K.A., Sun, S., Schaffer, A.A., Agarwala, R., Tomlin, J.F., O'Brien, S.J. & Murphy, W.J. (2003). Second-generation integrated genetic linkage/radiation hybrid maps of the domestic cat (Felis catus). J. Hered. 94, 95-106.
30. Mills, L.S., Citta, J.J., Lair, K.P., Schwartz, M.K. & Tallmon, D.A. (2000). Estimating animal abundance using noninvasive DNA sampling: promise and pitfalls. Ecol. Appl. 10, 283-294.
31. Miquel, C., Bellemain, E., Poillot, C., Bessiere, J., Durand, A. & Taberlet, P. (2006). Quality indexes to asses the reliability of genotypes in studies using noninvasive sampling and multiple-tube approach. Mol. Ecol. Notes 6, 985-988.
32. Murphy, W.J., Sun, S., Chen, Z.Q., Pecon-Slattery, J. & O'Brien, S.J. (1999). Extensive conservation of sex chromosome organization between cat and human revealed by parallel radiation hybrid mapping. Genome Res. 9, 1223-1230.
33. Nadir, E., Margalit, H., Gallily, T. & Ben-Sasson, S.A. (1996). Microsatellite spreading in the human genome: Evolutionary mechanisms and structural implications. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 6470-6475.
34. Nowell, K. & Jackson, P. (1996). Wild cats: Status, survey and conservation action plan. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
35. Oli, M.K. (1997). Winter home range of snow leopards in Nepal. Mammalia 61, 355-360.
36. Paetkau, D. & Strobeck, C. (1994). Microsatellite analysis of genetic-variation in black bear populations. Mol. Ecol. 3, 489-495.
37. Peakall, R. & Smouse, P.E. (2006). GeneAlex 6: Genetic analysis in excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol. Ecol. Notes 6, 288-295.
38. Piggott, M.P. & Taylor, A.C. (2003). Remote collection of animal DNA and its applications in conservation management and understanding the population biology of rare and cryptic species. Wildl. Res. 30, 1-13.
39. Pompano, F., Bonin, A., Bellemain, E. & Taberlet, P. (2005). Genotyping errors: Causes, consequences and solutions. Nat. Rev. Genet. 6, 847-859.
40. Rice, W.R. (1989). Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43, 223-225.
41. Rozas, J., Sanchez-del Barrio, J.C., Messeguer, X. & Rozas, R. (2003). DnaSP, DNA polymorphism analyses by the coalescent and other methods. Bioinformatics 19, 2496-2497.
42. Schaller, G.B. (1988). Wildlife of Tibetan steppe. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
43. Schaller, G.B., Ren, J.R. & Qiu, M.J. (1988). Status of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in Qinghai province and Gansu province, China. Biol. Conserv. 45, 179-194.
44. Schwartz, M.K., Luikart, G. & Waples, R.S. (2007). Genetic monitoring as a promising tool for conservation and management. Trends Ecol. Evol. 22, 25-33.
45. Sunquist, M.E. & Sunquist, F. (2002). Wild cats of the world. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
46. Taberlet, P., Waits, L.P. & Luikart, G. (1999). Noninvasive genetic sampling: Look before you leap. Trends Ecol. Evol. 14, 323-327.
47. Valiere, N., Bonenfant, C., Toigo, C., Luikart, G., Gaillard, J.M. & Klein, F. (2007). Importance of a pilot study for non-invasive genetic sampling: Genotyping errors and population size estimation in red deer. Conserv. Genet. 8, 69-78.
48. Waits, L.P., Buckley-Beason, V.A., Johnson, W.E., Onorato, D. & McCarthy, T. (2007). A select panel of polymorphic microsatellite loci for individual identification of snow leopards (Panthera uncia). Mol. Ecol. Notes 7, 311-314.
49. Waits, L.P., Luikart, G. & Taberlet, P. (2001). Estimating the probability of identity among genotypes in natural populations: Cautions and guidelines. Mol. Ecol. 10, 249-256.
50. Waits, L.P. & Paetkau, D. (2005). Noninvasive genetic sampling tools for wildlife biologists: A review of applications and recommendations for accurate data collection. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 69, 1419-1433.
51. Wayne, R.K., Geffen, E., Girman, D.J., Koepfli, K.P., Lau, L.M. & Marshall, C.R. (1997). Molecular systematics of the canidae. Syst. Biol. 46, 622-653.