Testing the influence of habituation on genetic structure of brown bear (Ursus arctos)

Abstract

Abstract. Adult bear individuals live solitary and have prolonged parent-offspring relationships, therefore the share of learned skills compared to the inherited ones is much larger than in other carnivores. This promotes acquisition of deviated behavior and simultaneously establishment of a kinship structure. However, deviated bear behavior and human food conditioning are the symptoms of habituation. The aim of this paper is to test the genetic structuring of habituated and non-habituated individuals located in the central region of Romania (Braşov and Prahova districts), a hotspot in terms of human-bear conflicts. Seven microsatellites were used to genotype 145 samples (ear clips and tissue), out of which 82 were classified as habituated and 63 as wild individuals, respectively. Our results suggest the presence of kinship structures in habituated bear group and a reduction of genetic diversity (H e = 0.75), while the group located in the wild registered a higher genetic diversity (H e = 0.78) and more private alleles. The genetic differentiation suggested by the Neighbor joining cluster analysis has been strengthened by the two percent (AMOVA) differences between the two groups and highlights the negative impact of brown bear kinship structure, caused by the human expansion on wilderness. The genetic analyses indicated that the two groups share genetic variants due to the dispersal and breeding patterns of male adult bears. The emergence of genetic differences between the two groups can be avoided by preventing bears to become human-food conditioned; over time, kinship structure can pose a threat to genetic diversity.

Patterns of Human–Brown Bear Conflict in the Urban Area of Brașov, Romania

“…Our study was conducted between 2004 and 2018, when the information obtained from various sources was numerous and rich in content. We explored HBCs in Bras , ov, one of the most important tourist mountain towns in Romania, and also a well-known hotspot in terms of HBCs [85]. On the other hand, the present study is a link of the whole HBC ensemble, which places Romania first in Europe in this respect [76].…”

Genetic structure of Eurasian beaver in Romania: insights after two decades from the reintroduction

“…DNA was extracted from hair samples using the Max-well® 16 Tissue D.N.A. Purification Kit (Promega, USA) (Cotovelea et al 2015) and optimized according to Fedorca et al (2018). Nine fluorescently labelled microsatellite markers (Crawford et al 2009;Pelz-Serrano et al 2009;Frosch et al 2010;Minnig et al 2016) were used and divided into two multiplexes: Multiplex I (Cca13, CF33, CF07, CF06) and Multiplex II (Cca18, CF31, CF05, CF44, CF19).…”