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Imperial trophy or island relict? A new extinction paradigm for Pere David's deer: a Chinese conservation icon.

ABSTRACT: Determining the 'dynamic biogeography' of range collapse in threatened species is essential for effective conservation, but reconstruction of spatio-temporal patterns of population vulnerability and resilience can require use of non-standard ecological data such as historical archives. Père David's deer or milu, one of the few living mammal species that has become extinct in the wild, is historically known only from a small captive herd of unknown provenance that survived until 1900 in the Imperial Hunting Park near Beijing, from which all living individuals are descended. Using ancient DNA analysis, we demonstrate that two fawns collected in 1868 from Hainan Island, off the southern Chinese mainland, represent the only known wild milu specimens and were sampled from probably the last wild population. The Hainan milu population shows extremely low genetic differentiation from descendants of the Beijing herd, suggesting that this now-extinct population may have been the source of the captive herd. This revised extinction model refutes the supposed long-term survival of a captive milu herd for centuries or millennia after final extinction of wild populations, highlighting the vulnerability of remnant mammal populations in the absence of proactive management and the importance of historical museum collections for providing unique new insights on evolution, biogeography and conservation. Milu experienced a pattern of final population persistence on an island at the periphery of their former range, consistent with the 'range eclipse' or 'contagion' model of range collapse, and matching the spatial extinction dynamics of other extinct mammals such as the thylacine and woolly mammoth.

SUBMITTER: Turvey ST

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5666285 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Imperial trophy or island relict? A new extinction paradigm for Père David's deer: a Chinese conservation icon.

Turvey Samuel T ST Barnes Ian I Marr Melissa M Brace Selina S

Royal Society open science 20171025 10

Determining the 'dynamic biogeography' of range collapse in threatened species is essential for effective conservation, but reconstruction of spatio-temporal patterns of population vulnerability and resilience can require use of non-standard ecological data such as historical archives. Père David's deer or milu, one of the few living mammal species that has become extinct in the wild, is historically known only from a small captive herd of unknown provenance that survived until 1900 in the Imper ...[more]

PMID: 29134102

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Project description:BackgroundThe Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) population was established from only a small number of individuals. Their genetic diversity is therefore relatively low and transmissible (parasitic) diseases affecting them merit further attention. Parasitic infections can affect the health, survival, and population development of the host. However, few reports have been published on the gastrointestinal parasites of Père David's deer. The aims of this study were: (1) to identify the intestinal parasites groups in Père David's deer; (2) to determine their prevalence and burden and clarify the effects of different seasons and regions on various indicators of Père David's deer intestinal parasites; (3) to evaluate the effects of the Père David's deer reproductive period on these parasites; (4) to reveal the regularity of the parasites in space and time.MethodsIn total, 1,345 Père David's deer faecal samples from four regions during four seasons were tested using the flotation (saturated sodium nitrate solution) to identify parasites of different genus or group, and the McMaster technique to count the number of eggs or oocysts.ResultsFour groups of gastrointestinal parasites were found, of which strongyles were dominant; their prevalence and burden were significantly higher than other groups. Significant temporal and spatial effects on gastrointestinal parasitic infection were found. Parasite diversity, prevalence, parasite burden, and aggregation were the highest in summer. Among the four regions, parasite diversity, prevalence, and burden were the highest in the Dongting Lake area. In addition, parasite diversity and burden during the reproductive period of Père David's deer was significantly higher than during the post-reproductive period.ConclusionsThe summer season and the reproductive period of Père David's deer had great potential for parasite transmission, and there is a high risk of parasite outbreaks in the Dongting Lake area.

Project description:The gut microbial composition and function are shaped by different factors (e.g., host diet and phylogeny). Gut microbes play an important role in host nutrition and development. The gut microbiome may be used to evaluate the host potential environmental adaptation. In this study, we focused on the coevolution of the gut microbiome of captive and translocated Père David's deer populations (Elaphurus davidianus; Chinese: Père David's deer). To address this, we used several different macro- and micro-ecological approaches (landscape ecology, nutritional methods, microscopy, isotopic analysis, and metagenomics). In this long-term study (2011-2014), we observed some dissimilarities in gut microbiome community and function between the captive and wild/translocated Dafeng Père David's deer populations. These differences might link microbiome composition with deer diet within a given season. The proportion of genes coding for putative enzymes (endoglucanase, beta-glucosidase, and cellulose 1,4-beta-cellobiosidase) involved in cellulose digestion in the gut microbiome of the captive populations was higher than that of the translocated population, possibly because of the high proportion of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in the plants most consumed by the captive populations. However, the two enzymes (natA and natB) involved in sodium transport system were enriched in the gut microbiome in translocated population, possibly because of their high salt diet (e.g., Spartina alterniflora). Thus, our results suggested that Père David's deer gut microorganisms potentially coevolved with host diet, and reflected the local adaptation of translocated population in the new environment (e.g., new dietary plants: Spartina alterniflora). A current problem for Père David's deer conservation is the saturation of captive populations. Given that the putative evolutionary adaptation of Père David's deer gut microbiome and its possible applications in conservation, the large area of wetlands along the Yellow Sea dominated by S. alterniflora might be the major translocation region in the future.

Project description:The reintroduction is an important conservation tool to restore a species in its historically distribution area, but the rate of reintroduction success varies across species or regions due to different reasons. Genetic evaluation is important to the conservation management of reintroduced species. Conservation concerns relate to genetic threats for species with a small population size or severely historically bottle-necked species, such as negative consequences associated with loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding. The last 40years have seen a rapid increasing of population size for Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), which originated from a limited founder population. However, the genetic structure of reintroduced Père David's deer has not been investigated in terms of population genomics, and it is still not clear about the evolutionary history of Père David's deer and to what extent the inbreeding level is. Conservation genomics methods were used to reconstruct the demographic history of Père David's deer, evaluate genetic diversity, and characterize genetic structure among 18 individuals from the captive, free-ranging and wild populations. The results showed that 1,456,457 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained for Père David's deer, and low levels of genome-wide genetic diversity were observed in Père David's deer compared with Red deer (Cervus elaphus) and Sika deer (Cervus nippon). A moderate population genetic differentiation was detected among three populations of Père David's deer, especially between the captive population in Beijing Père David's deer park and the free-ranging population in Jiangsu Dafeng National Nature Reserve. The effective population size of Père David's deer started to decline ~25.8ka, and the similar levels of three populations' LD reflected the genetic impacts of long-term population bottlenecks in the Père David's deer. The findings of this study could highlight the necessity of individual exchange between different facilities, and genetic management should generally be integrated into conservation planning with other management considerations.

Dataset Information

Imperial trophy or island relict? A new extinction paradigm for Pere David's deer: a Chinese conservation icon.

Publications

Imperial trophy or island relict? A new extinction paradigm for Père David's deer: a Chinese conservation icon.

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