Environmental DNA from Residual Saliva for Efficient Noninvasive Genetic Monitoring of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos)
نویسندگان
چکیده
Noninvasive genetic sampling is an important tool in wildlife ecology and management, typically relying on hair snaring or scat sampling techniques, but hair snaring is labor and cost intensive, and scats yield relatively low quality DNA. New approaches utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA) may provide supplementary, cost-effective tools for noninvasive genetic sampling. We tested whether eDNA from residual saliva on partially-consumed Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) carcasses might yield suitable DNA quality for noninvasive monitoring of brown bears (Ursus arctos). We compared the efficiency of monitoring brown bear populations using both fecal DNA and salivary eDNA collected from partially-consumed salmon carcasses in Southeast Alaska. We swabbed a range of tissue types from 156 partially-consumed salmon carcasses from a midseason run of lakeshore-spawning sockeye (O. nerka) and a late season run of stream-spawning chum (O. keta) salmon in 2014. We also swabbed a total of 272 scats from the same locations. Saliva swabs collected from the braincases of salmon had the best amplification rate, followed by swabs taken from individual bite holes. Saliva collected from salmon carcasses identified unique individuals more quickly and required much less labor to locate than scat samples. Salmon carcass swabbing is a promising method to aid in efficient and affordable monitoring of bear populations, and suggests that the swabbing of food remains or consumed baits from other animals may be an additional cost-effective and valuable tool in the study of the ecology and population biology of many elusive and/or wide-ranging species.
منابع مشابه
Genetic relationships of extant brown bears (Ursus arctos) and polar bears (Ursus maritimus).
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) are closely related species for which extensive mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenetic comparisons have been made. We used previously published genotype data for 8 microsatellite DNA loci from 930 brown bears in 19 populations and 473 polar bears in 16 populations to compare the population genetic relationships of extant populations o...
متن کاملFactors Affecting Local People’s Fear of Brown Bears (Ursus Arctos) in Protected Areas of Alborz Province
Wildlife management and conservation is challenged by public perceptions and fear of carnivores in communities living in close proximity to wild habitats, where large carnivores occur. Fear of carnivores influences peoplechr('39')s attitudes towards wild animals, further exacerbating the problems associated with effective conservation and management of wildlife. Here, we aimed to investigate th...
متن کاملAnatomical study of the Iranian brown bear’s skull (Ursus arctos): A case report
The Brown bear (Ursusarctos) is a species at risk of extinction. It is considered the largestcarnivore and lives in northern Iran. Several studies on the structure of skullhave been accomplished in differentanimals. The aim of this study was the inscription of gross anatomicalcharacteristics of skulls of three Iranian adult male brown bears that weretransferred to the Anatomical Departmentof ...
متن کاملGenetic relationships of North American bears (Ursus) inferred from amplified fragment length polymorphisms and mitochondrial DNA sequences
The three species of bears inNorthAmerica, polarbears (UrsusmaritimusPhipps, 1774), brownbears (Ursus arctos L., 1758), and black bears (Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780), have differentiated morphologies and nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. An exception is a paraphyletic mitochondrial DNA relationship and some nuclear gene lineages common to polar bears and a population of brown bears from isla...
متن کامل