A Practive Faeces Collection Protocol for Multidisciplinary Research in Wildlife Science

Biswas, Suvankar; Bhatt, Supriya; Paul, Shrutarshi; Modi, Shrushti; Ghosh, Tista; Habib, Bilal; Nigam, Parag; Talukdar, Gautam; Pandav, Bivash; Mondol, Samrat

doi:10.18520/cs/v116/i11/1878-1885

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…In the field, the samples were judged as large carnivores based on several physical characteristics such as scrape marks, tracks, faecal diameter etc. All faecal samples were collected in wax paper and stored individually in sterile zip-lock bags and stored inside dry, dark boxes in the field for a maximum of two weeks period (Biswas et al, 2019). All samples were collected with GPS locations and were transferred to the laboratory and stored in −20 • C freezers until further processing.…”

Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent

Bhatt

Biswas

Karanth

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Background Large carnivores maintain the stability and functioning of ecosystems. Currently, many carnivore species face declining population sizes due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. The leopard, Panthera pardus, is probably the most widely distributed and highly adaptable large felid globally, still persisting in most of its historic range. However, we lack subspecies-level data on country or regional scale on population trends, as ecological monitoring approaches are difficult to apply on such wide-ranging species. We used genetic data from leopards sampled across the Indian subcontinent to investigate population structure and patterns of demographic decline. Methods We collected faecal samples from the Terai-Arc landscape of northern India and identified 56 unique individuals using a panel of 13 microsatellite markers. We merged this data with already available 143 leopard individuals and assessed genetic structure at country scale. Subsequently, we investigated the demographic history of each identified subpopulations and compared genetic decline analyses with countrywide local extinction probabilities. Results Our genetic analyses revealed four distinct subpopulations corresponding to Western Ghats, Deccan Plateau-Semi Arid, Shivalik and Terai region of the north Indian landscape, each with high genetic variation. Coalescent simulations with microsatellite loci revealed a possibly human-induced 75–90% population decline between ∼120–200 years ago across India. Population-specific estimates of genetic decline are in concordance with ecological estimates of local extinction probabilities in these subpopulations obtained from occupancy modeling of the historic and current distribution of leopards in India. Conclusions Our results confirm the population decline of a widely distributed, adaptable large carnivore. We re-iterate the relevance of indirect genetic methods for such species in conjunction with occupancy assessment and recommend that detailed, landscape-level ecological studies on leopard populations are critical to future conservation efforts. Our approaches and inference are relevant to other widely distributed, seemingly unaffected carnivores such as the leopard.

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Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For all field-collected faecal samples, DNA extraction was performed using protocols described in Biswas et al (2019). In brief, each frozen faeces was thawed to room temperature and the upper layer was swabbed twice with Phosphate buffer saline (PBS) saturated sterile cotton applicators (HiMedia).…”

Section: Dna Extraction Species and Individual Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent

Bhatt

Biswas

Karanth

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Section: Dna Extraction Species and Individual Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #1 of "Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent (v0.1)"

2020

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Large carnivores maintain the stability and functioning of ecosystems. Currently, many carnivore species face declining population sizes due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. The leopard, Panthera pardus, is probably the most widely distributed and highly adaptable large felid globally, still persisting in most of its historic range. However, we lack subspecies-level data on country or regional scale on population trends, as ecological monitoring approaches are difficult to apply on such wide-ranging species. We used genetic data from leopards sampled across the Indian subcontinent to investigate population structure and patterns of demographic decline. Methods We collected faecal samples from the Terai-Arc landscape of north India and identified 56 unique individuals using a panel of 13 microsatellite markers. We merged this data with already available 143 leopard individuals and assessed genetic structure at country scale. Subsequently, we investigated the demographic history of each identified subpopulations and compared genetic decline analyses with countrywide local extinction probabilities. Results Our genetic analyses revealed four distinct subpopulations corresponding to Western Ghats, Deccan Plateau-Semi Arid, Shivalik and Terai region of the north Indian landscape, each with high genetic variation. Coalescent simulations with microsatellite loci revealed a possibly human-induced 75-90% population decline between ∼120-200 years ago across India. Population-specific estimates of genetic decline are in concordance with ecological estimates of local extinction probabilities in these subpopulations obtained from occupancy modeling of the historic and current distribution of leopards in India. Conclusions Our results confirm the population decline of a widely distributed, adaptable large carnivore. We reiterate the relevance of indirect genetic methods for such species in conjunction with occupancy assessment and recommend that detailed, landscape-level ecological studies on leopard populations are

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“…Faecal samples were stored in -20 0 C freezer till further processing. To identify tiger faeces we used DNA-based approaches described in Biswas et al (2019). In brief, we swabbed each sample twice and digested the swabs overnight at 56 0 C with 30µl proteinase K and 300µl ATL buffer.…”

Section: Faecal Sample Collection Species Identification and Hormonementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of faecal inorganic contents in accurate measures of stress and nutrition hormone in large felines: implications for physiological assessments in free-ranging animals

Biswas

Goswami

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Non-invasive stress and nutritional hormones and their interactions are increasingly being used to monitor psychological and nutritional physiology in free-ranging animals at different ecological scales. However, a number of extrinsic and intrinsic factors including hormone-inert dietary materials, inorganic matters etc. are known to affect accurate hormone measures. Here we addressed the impacts of inorganic matter (IOM) on corticosterone and T3 measures in wild tiger (n=193 from Terai Arc landscape, India) and captive lion (n=120 from Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, Gujarat, India) faeces and evaluated possible corrective measures. The wild tiger samples contained highly variable IOM content (9-98%, mostly with >40% IOM) compared to captive Asiatic lion (17-57%, majority with <40% IOM). We observed significant negative correlation between IOM content and tiger GC (r=-0.48, p=0.000) and T3 (r=-0.60, p=0.000) measures but not in captive lions (r= -0.05, p=0.579). Two corrective measures viz. removing samples with ≥80% IOM and subsequently expressing concentrations as per gram of organic dry matter (instead of total dry matter) reduced IOM influence on tiger GC and T3 measures without affecting lion GC results. The corrective measures bring out alterations in the tiger T3 results but no changes in GC results. As faecal IOM content is associated with specific behaviours of many carnivore species, our results emphasize the need to reduce IOM-driven hormone data variation for ecologically relevant interpretations for species conservation.

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A Practive Faeces Collection Protocol for Multidisciplinary Research in Wildlife Science

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent

Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent

Peer Review #1 of "Genetic analyses reveal population structure and recent decline in leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) across the Indian subcontinent (v0.1)"

Effects of faecal inorganic contents in accurate measures of stress and nutrition hormone in large felines: implications for physiological assessments in free-ranging animals

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