New genetic study of big cats

Bengaluru, Nov 11, 2014, DHNS :

While many research on tigers and leopards by various organisations are on, here is one more. But this one would help as a scientific base for further genetic studies, especially in wake of increasing death of carnivores. 

Team of scientists from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (CCMP), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Centre for Wildlife Studies and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have developed a range of novel genetic approaches to identify species, sex and individuals from carnivore scats titled - Identifying species, sex and individual tigers and leopards in the Malenad - Mysore Tiger Landscape, Western Ghats, India.

It has been authored by Samrat Mondol from CCMP, N Samba Kumar, Arjun Gopalaswamy and Ullas Karanth from WCS and Kartik Sunagar and Uma Ramakrishnan from NCBS. The team collected over 300 carnivore scat samples across 20,000-sqkm landscape in Karnataka, and used molecular tools to identify the species (tiger or leopard), assign individual identities and also reliably determine the gender of the animal.

The methods deployed included a novel multiplex PCR-electrophoresis based approach for species identification, a new multiplex-molecular sexing system combining two previously described gender determination approaches (based on Amelogenin and ZFX-DBY markers), and use of micro-satellite loci for individual identification.

Species identification was done for 312 faecal samples. This revealed that of the 229 leopard samples, 78 were females and 56 were males; of the 39 tigers, 13 were females and five males and 44 of canids.

“We are constantly looking to develop simpler yet more accurate methods to collect data on wildlife, which will be applied in conservation. This pilot study for tigers and leopards is a step ahead in conservation genetics. It can be successfully applied to any other endangered wildlife and will be useful for large mammals like bears and dholes that cannot be identified through physical features,” said Karanth, CWS Director.

source