Recovery of a nearly extinct Galápagos tortoise despite minimal genetic variation

Article Article scientifique Article Recovery of a nearly extinct Galápagos tortoise despite minimal genetic variation eng 2012-10-10 2012-10-10 author Milinkovitch Michel C. Laboratory of Artificial & Natural Evolution (LANE), Department of Genetics & Evolution University of Geneva Geneva Switzerland 679786 Département de génétique et évolution (Genev) (BIANI) author Kanitz Ricardo 0000-0003-4759-0207 Laboratory of Artificial & Natural Evolution (LANE), Department of Genetics & Evolution University of Geneva Geneva Switzerland 701661 author Tiedemann Ralph 0000-0002-2604-6336 Unit of Evolutionary Biology and Systematic Zoology Institute of Biochemistry & Biology University of Potsdam Potsdam Germany author Tapia Washington 0000-0002-5222-1804 Galápagos National Park Service Puerto Ayora Galápagos Islands Ecuador author Llerena Fausto Galápagos National Park Service Puerto Ayora Galápagos Islands Ecuador author Caccone Adalgisa Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Yale Institute for Biospherics Studies Yale University New Haven CT USA author Gibbs James P. College of Environmental Science & Forestry, State University of New York Syracuse NY USA author Powell Jeffrey R. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Yale Institute for Biospherics Studies Yale University New Haven CT USA 377-383 10.1111/eva.12014 23467700 1752-4571 PMC3586625 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.12014 <p>A species of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Española Island was reduced to just 12 females and three males that have been bred in captivity since 1971 and have produced over 1700 offspring now repatriated to the island. Our molecular genetic analyses of juveniles repatriated to and surviving on the island indicate that none of the tortoises sampled in 1994 had hatched on the island versus 3% in 2004 and 24% in 2007, which demonstrates substantial and increasing reproduction in situ once again. This recovery occurred despite the parental population having an estimated effective population size <8 due to a combination of unequal reproductive success of the breeders and nonrandom mating in captivity. These results provide guidelines for adapting breeding regimes in the parental captive population and decreasing inbreeding in the repatriated population. Using simple morphological data scored on the sampled animals, we also show that a strongly heterogeneous distribution of tortoise sizes on Española Island observed today is due to a large variance in the number of animals included in yearly repatriation events performed in the last 40 years. Our study reveals that, at least in the short run, some endangered species can recover dramatically despite a lack of genetic variation and irregular repatriation efforts.</p> Captive populations Conservation biology Conservation genetics Dewey 590 44 Département de génétique et évolution 162 false Evolutionary applications 6 2 339b2b81-1db0-42ee-ae83-d843aa5bfc39 Article (Published version) Public MILINKOVITCH06.pdf 231296 application/pdf CC BY 37fccc5716b6d6a117ef0b112d6408c7b887704a1184ce01ecf3689adc930f21 openAccess Faculté des sciences / Section de biologie / Département de génétique et évolution

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Recovery of a nearly extinct Galápagos tortoise despite minimal genetic variation	Evolutionary applications			2012	62	363

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Kanitz, Ricardo