Genetic guidelines for captive breeding and reintroductions of the endangered Black‐fronted Piping Guan, Aburria jacutinga (galliformes, cracidae), an Atlantic Forest endemic

Abstract

The survival of a number of birds rely on captive breeding and reintroduction into the wild, but captive populations are often small and can be exposed to the negative effects of inbreeding and genetic drift. Then, managers are concerned not only with producing as much offspring as possible, but also with the retention of the maximum genetic variability within and between populations. The Black-fronted Piping Guan, Aburria jacutinga, is an endangered cracid endemic to the Atlantic Forest of southeastern South America. Because of its conservation status and functional importance, a captive breeding program started independently, mainly in three aviaries, in the decade of 1980. Although they have supplied animals for reintroductions, genetic variability aspects have never been considered. Here we addressed levels of genetic variability within and between these aviaries. Bayesian clustering analyses revealed two lineages. Inbreeding was not detected, although we found evidences for a recent bottleneck in one of the aviaries. Then, our main management recommendations are: i) reintroducing the species in areas where it has been extinct is more prudent than supplementing natural populations, as it could involve risks of disrupting local adaptive complexes; ii) as far as inbreeding can be avoided, the captive groups should be managed separately to minimize adaptation to captivity; iii) crossbreedings in pre-release generations could improve reintroduction success; and iv) a studbook should be implemented. As populations of Black-fronted Piping Guan from conservation units are progressively declining, these captive genetic repositories may gain importance in a near future. Zoo Biol. 35:313-318, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reduced genetic variability in a captive-bred population of the endangered Hume’s pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae, Hume 1881) revealed by microsatellite genotyping and D-loop sequencing

“…The expected heterozygosity H e was significantly higher than H o in the captive population of Hume's pheasant. Similar cases were also observed in the captive populations of cracids [60] and Black-fronted piping guan (Aburria jacutinga, Spix, 1825) [61], which is suggestive of possible inbreeding owing to the small population size. This result is consistent with the positive F IS value (mean = 0.153 ± 0.179) and the mean r values in the captive population.…”

Determining the factors that influence the occurrence of Bare-faced Curassows (Crax fasciolata) in Humid Chaco, northern Argentina

“…Ecotourism as well as the creation and maintenance of protected areas could play a key role in socioeconomic development in the local communities, which would enable both species conservation and the generation of local culture for conservation. Cracid reintroductions have been used as a conservation tool for the restoration of threatened species, as was the case with Crax blumenbachii (São Bernardo 2012), Pipile albipennis (Angulo and Barrio 2004), and Aburria jacutinga (Oliveira et al 2016). Reintroduction and ecotourism are being carried out effectively in some parts of the Argentinean Chaco, as happens in Iberá -Corrientes province (Caruso and Jiménez Pérez 2013, Di Blanco et al 2015, Zamboni et al 2017, where local hunters started working as provincial park rangers or local guides, which created a socioeconomic change in the region.…”

Haemoproteus paraortalidum n. sp. in captive Black-fronted Piping-guans Aburria jacutinga (Galliformes, Cracidae): High prevalence in a population reintroduced into the wild

“…This bird species is one of the most important seed dispersers from the Atlantic rainforest (Galetti et al, 2013), playing a crucial role in this highly endangered biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al, 2000). Currently, five conservation centrers breed this species for reintroduction under the Brazilian Action Plan for the Conservation of Endangered Galliformes (ICMBio, 2008;Oliveira-Jr. et al, 2016). Reintroduction of captive-bred animals is essential to avoid threatened birds from being extinct (Costa et al, 2017;Earnhardt et al, 2014;Hammer and Watson, 2012) and is successful for the Red-billed Curassow (Crax blumenbachii), for example, a Brazilian cracid that has been reintroduced in the Atlantic rainforest for almost 30 years (Bernardo et al, 2011a;São Bernardo et al, 2014).…”