Genetic structure and conservation of Mountain Lions in the South-Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest

Abstract

The Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems worldwide, is also among the most important hotspots as regards biodiversity. Through intensive logging, the initial area has been reduced to around 12% of its original size. In this study we investigated the genetic variability and structure of the mountain lion, Puma concolor. Using 18 microsatellite loci we analyzed evidence of allele dropout, null alleles and stuttering, calculated the number of allele/locus, PIC, observed and expected heterozygosity, linkage disequilibrium, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, FIS, effective population size and genetic structure (MICROCHECKER, CERVUS, GENEPOP, FSTAT, ARLEQUIN, ONESAMP, LDNe, PCAGEN, GENECLASS software), we also determine whether there was evidence of a bottleneck (HYBRIDLAB, BOTTLENECK software) that might influence the future viability of the population in south Brazil. 106 alleles were identified, with the number of alleles/locus ranging from 2 to 11. Mean observed heterozygosity, mean number of alleles and polymorphism information content were 0.609, 5.89, and 0.6255, respectively. This population presented evidence of a recent bottleneck and loss of genetic variation. Persistent regional poaching constitutes an increasing in the extinction risk.

Evidence of Recent Fine-Scale Population Structuring in South American Puma concolor

“…However, the genetic diversity parameters (A, AR, H e , H o ) evaluated within both populations (Table 1) showed similar values to those found in other studies in populations of South American cougar [17,18]. The relatively high values of AR and H e , suggesting a certain level of good genetic health of these local populations, need to be seen with caution, since the potential gene flow limitation observed here can in the long term impact the local genetic variation.…”

“…For both genetic clusters, F is were only not significant when the p-value was adjusted (p-value = 0.004) for heterozygosity deficit (EEI: F is = 0.166, p = 0.007; EEC: F is = 0.416, p = 0.036) ( Table 1). However, a smaller F is value was previously used to report in-progress genetic variation loss in South American cougar (F is = 0.108, p ≤ 0.05) [18]. In this sense, a similar conclusion could be reached for the populations studied here, and the gene flow reduction observed could accelerate this process of putative genetic variation loss.…”

“…This evidence in turn reinforces the need for more studies to understand the biology and population structure of cougars and how land-use changes area leading to the structure observed here. Lack of population structuring was observed for cougars inhabiting the South region in the Brazilian territory, with a permeable regional matrix being described for the species [18]. Studies in the northeast region of the São Paulo state (above the Tietê River), using the same set of microsatellites used here, found no population structuring [17].…”

Livestock Predation by Puma (Puma concolor) in the Highlands of a Southeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…Managing problem animals such as killing or re-locating offending pumas might not be possible because the Atlantic forest is an endangered biome where there is evidence of a genetic bottleneck for pumas (Miotto et al 2011;Castilho et al 2012). Even if the problem animal is detected, the efforts to capture are enormous and translocation appears to have a low success rate (Linnell et al 1997).…”

“…Although 88 % of the original forest is completely depleted of four species of large mammals [jaguar, tapir (Tapirus terrestris), white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), and muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides)], 55 % is considered unsuitable for them (Jorge et al 2013). Even pumas, which appear to be more tolerant of forest loss and fragmentation than jaguars (De Angelo et al 2011), have been affected by loss of genetic variation (Miotto et al 2011;Castilho et al 2012). There is evidence that hunting, and not lack of landscape connectivity, is a major threat for this species (Castilho et al 2011).…”