Ivan V. Seryodkin

Chapter 32 – Science-Based Conservation of Amur Tigers in the Russian Far East and Northeast China

Publisher Summary It was into this chaos that the American team arrived with a simple objective: collect the best possible information on the ecology and population dynamics of Amur tigers as a basis for implementing effective conservation actions. Today, conservation activities focused on the Amur tiger are multi-faceted, broad-based, and implemented by a variety of organizations, both governmental and non-governmental. Some of the most successful programs are predicated on credible science and effective monitoring to inform the conservation process. This chapter explores the relationships and explains how research has informed and guided Amur tiger conservation over a 15-year period. The “traditional” approach to conservation used by many large organizations and donors is to collect initial information as a basis for developing and implementing conservation strategies. Surveys that provide fundamental knowledge about changes in abundance of tiger populations can guide conservation efforts. Conservation planning has become a highly developed process, and there have been numerous algorithms and in-depth research to identify priority landscapes for biodiversity conservation. There is a need for research and conservation to evolve in close alliance, in which the necessities of conservation define the research priorities, and the findings of the research inform and guide the conservation actions.

Canine distemper virus as a threat to wild tigers in Russia and across their range.

Canine distemper virus (CDV) has recently been identified in populations of wild tigers in Russia and India. Tiger populations are generally too small to maintain CDV for long periods, but are at risk of infections arising from more abundant susceptible hosts that constitute a reservoir of infection. Because CDV is an additive mortality factor, it could represent a significant threat to small, isolated tiger populations. In Russia, CDV was associated with the deaths of tigers in 2004 and 2010, and was coincident with a localized decline of tigers in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (from 25 tigers in 2008 to 9 in 2012). Habitat continuity with surrounding areas likely played an important role in promoting an ongoing recovery. We recommend steps be taken to assess the presence and the impact of CDV in all tiger range states, but should not detract focus away from the primary threats to tigers, which include habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and retaliatory killing. Research priorities include: (i) recognition and diagnosis of clinical cases of CDV in tigers when they occur; and (ii) collection of baseline data on the health of wild tigers. CDV infection of individual tigers need not imply a conservation threat, and modeling should complement disease surveillance and targeted research to assess the potential impact to tiger populations across the range of ecosystems, population densities and climate extremes occupied by tigers. Describing the role of domestic and wild carnivores as contributors to a local CDV reservoir is an important precursor to considering control measures.

Mortality of Amur tigers: The more things change, the more they stay the same

Poaching as well as loss of habitat and prey are identified as causes of tiger population declines. Although some studies have examined habitat requirements and prey availability, few studies have quantified cause-specific mortality of tigers. We used cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) to quantify cause-specific mortality rates of tigers, expanding and refining earlier studies to assess the potential impact of a newly emerging disease. To quantify changes in tiger mortality over time, we re-examined data first collected by Goodrich et al. (; study period 1: 1992-2004) as well as new telemetry data collected since January 2005 (study period 2: 2005-2012) using a total of 57 tigers (27 males and 30 females) monitored for an average of 747 days (range 26-4718 days). Across the entire study period (1992 to 2012) we found an estimated average annual survival rate of 0.75 for all tigers combined. Poaching was the primary cause of mortality during both study periods, followed by suspected poaching, distemper and natural/unknown causes. Since 2005, poaching mortality has remained relatively constant and, if combined with suspected poaching, may account for a loss of 17-19% of the population each year. Canine distemper virus (CDV) may be an additive form of mortality to the population, currently accounting for an additional 5%. Despite this relatively new source of mortality, poaching remains the main threat to Amur tiger survival and, therefore, population growth.

Genetic structure of wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations from East Asia based on microsatellite loci analyses

BackgroundWild boar, Sus scrofa, is an extant wild ancestor of the domestic pig as an agro-economically important mammal. Wild boar has a worldwide distribution with its geographic origin in Southeast Asia, but genetic diversity and genetic structure of wild boar in East Asia are poorly understood. To characterize the pattern and amount of genetic variation and population structure of wild boar in East Asia, we genotyped and analyzed microsatellite loci for a total of 238 wild boar specimens from ten locations across six countries in East and Southeast Asia.ResultsOur data indicated that wild boar populations in East Asia are genetically diverse and structured, showing a significant correlation of genetic distance with geographic distance and implying a low level of gene flow at a regional scale. Bayesian-based clustering analysis was indicative of seven inferred genetic clusters in which wild boars in East Asia are geographically structured. The level of genetic diversity was relatively high in wild boars from Southeast Asia, compared with those from Northeast Asia. This gradient pattern of genetic diversity is consistent with an assumed ancestral population of wild boar in Southeast Asia. Genetic evidences from a relationship tree and structure analysis suggest that wild boar in Jeju Island, South Korea have a distinct genetic background from those in mainland Korea.ConclusionsOur results reveal a diverse pattern of genetic diversity and the existence of genetic differentiation among wild boar populations inhabiting East Asia. This study highlights the potential contribution of genetic variation of wild boar to the high genetic diversity of local domestic pigs during domestication in East Asia.

Non-invasive genetic sampling of brown bears and Asiatic black bears in the Russian Far East: A pilot study

Abstract Non-invasive genetic sampling (NGS) methods have been instrumental in providing robust population abundance and density estimates of bears. We conducted a small pilot study to (1) evaluate 2 NGS methods of hair traps and bear rubs in the Russian Far East (RFE) on sympatric populations of Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos), and (2) to identify potential DNA marker sets for future study. Genetic analysis required 6 microsatellite markers to definitively identify individuals plus a gender marker, and closed population models estimated 142 Asiatic black bears and 18 brown bears. Spatially-explicit mark–recapture (SECR) density estimates for brown bears were 3 bears/100 km2. Inflated Asiatic black bear estimates resulted from a lack of recaptures, although using combined detection data from the 2 NGS methods was found to improve precision for abundance estimates. Capture probabilities were higher for brown bears than for Asiatic black bears, but overall recapture probabilities were low for both species. The frequency of rubbing declined from June to August, possibly due to bears leaving the study area, and Asiatic black bears were detected less frequently on rubs than brown bears, suggesting that species-specific ecology must be incorporated into future study designs. We recommend that future applications of NGS in the RFE improve capture probabilities by sampling earlier in the season to mitigate geographic closure violation for abundance estimates and to increase the number of detections for robust spatially explicit capture–recapture analyses. Our results demonstrate that NGS methods have strong potential for monitoring of bear populations in the RFE.

Rare earth elements upon assessment of reasons of the geophagy in Sikhote-Alin region (Russian Federation), Africa and other world regions

Rocks eaten by wild animals on the Bolshoy Shanduyskiy kudur in the Sikhote-Alin region (Russian Federation) are zeolite–clay mineral complexes—products of weathering of zeolitized vitric tuffs of rhyolite composition, deposited in aqueous medium within the volcanic caldera of about 55 million years ago. By composition of rock-forming oxides, the tuffs refer to high-potassium calc-alkaline series. In trace elements of most favorite kudurites of the Bolshoy Shanduyskiy kudur, there are significantly increased contents of most of rare earth elements (2–5 times in comparison with surrounding rocks). The results of our analysis of geological and geochemical data on kudurs and kudurites in another part of the Sikhote-Alin, as well as on other regions of the world (particularly, in Africa and Indonesia), taking into account new data on the prevalence of rare earth elements in living matter and their medical and biological properties, enable us to consider the version of causal connection of the geophagy with rare earth elements.

Phytoliths in Taxonomy of Phylogenetic Domains of Plants

We discuss, from the aspect of phylogeny, the interrelationships of the phytolith types in plants from the main taxonomical groups (algae, lichens, horsetails, gymnosperms, and floral plants) with homologues of known proteins of biomineralization. Phytolith morphotypes in various phylogenetic plant domains have different shapes. We found that, in ancient types of plants (algae, horsetails, and gymnosperms), there are fewer different phytolith morphotypes compared to more modern plants (floral plants). The phytolith morphotypes in primitive plants are generally larger than the morphotypes in more highly organized plants. We found that the irregular ruminate and irregular smooth morphotypes are the two most frequently encountered phytolith morphotypes in the tested plants (from algae to floral plants). These two morphotypes probably have a universal role. Silacidins, silicon transporters, silicateins, silaffins, and silicase homologues are often found in the major taxonomic groups of plants. Red algae had the smallest number of homologues of the biomineralization proteins (70–80), Monocotyledonous: 142, Coniferous: 166, Mosses: 227, and Dicotyledones: 336.

Retention of functional variation despite extreme genomic erosion: MHC allelic repertoires in the Lynx genus

BackgroundDemographic bottlenecks erode genetic diversity and may increase endangered species’ extinction risk via decreased fitness and adaptive potential. The genetic status of species is generally assessed using neutral markers, whose dynamic can differ from that of functional variation due to selection. The MHC is a multigene family described as the most important genetic component of the mammalian immune system, with broad implications in ecology and evolution. The genus Lynx includes four species differing immensely in demographic history and population size, which provides a suitable model to study the genetic consequences of demographic declines: the Iberian lynx being an extremely bottlenecked species and the three remaining ones representing common and widely distributed species. We compared variation in the most variable exon of the MHCI and MHCII-DRB loci among the four species of the Lynx genus.ResultsThe Iberian lynx was characterised by lower number of MHC alleles than its sister species (the Eurasian lynx). However, it maintained most of the functional genetic variation at MHC loci present in the remaining and genetically healthier lynx species at all nucleotide, amino acid, and supertype levels.ConclusionsSpecies-wide functional genetic diversity can be maintained even in the face of severe population bottlenecks, which caused devastating whole genome genetic erosion. This could be the consequence of divergent alleles being retained across paralogous loci, an outcome that, in the face of frequent gene conversion, may have been favoured by balancing selection.

Results of geological and geochemical investigations of Kaplanov kudurs in Sikhote-Alin, Russian Far East

A series of studies was carried out at the Kaplanov kudurs in the upper reaches of the Kolumbe river (the territory of Sikhote-Alin biosphere reserve, Russia) in order to confirm the “rare earth” hypothesis as one of the possible causes of geophagy and consumption of mineralized spring water on kudurs. The mineral and chemical content of spring water and mineral soils of lithogenic substances, consumed by animals at the Kaplanov kudurs in the upper reaches of the Kolumbe river (the territory of Sikhote-Alin biosphere reserve, Russia). Previously unknown data on microelement composition of the minerals consumed by animals was received. It was found that the composition of water of various kudurs differs immensely and forms mainly in restored gley environments (sometimes in restored environments with high concentrations of sulfates). It was also found out that the microelement composition in spring waters can significantly vary over time. When this happens, the most variable are Al, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ba, Sr, and some rare metals from the rare earth elements (REE) group and lanthanides. It was confirmed that one of the elements which attracts the animals in spring water and in “edible” subsoils is Na. However, Na is not the only element, which is searched by the animals at the kudurs, as consumed water and soil on some kudur contain an insignificant amount of it with simultaneously increased concentrations of a number of trace elements, including from the group REE.

Anthropogenic influences on the distribution of a Vulnerable coniferous forest specialist: habitat selection by the Siberian musk deer Moschus moschiferus

The Siberian musk deer Moschus moschiferus , categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, is a small ungulate associated with coniferous forests of East Asia. In Russia the species is hunted both legally and illegally for the commercially valuable musk gland in males. Steep population declines recorded in recent decades have been generally attributed to intensive illegal hunting, but the decline has coincided with increased logging activity and the concomitant expansion of logging roads. We conducted an occupancy analysis in Primorskii Krai, Russia, to elucidate the relative importance of environmental, ecological and anthropogenic features associated with the presence of musk deer. The top model contained covariates related to the abundance of bearded lichen Usnea spp., the distance to a main road and the distance to logging sites, suggesting that both intensive hunting of musk deer (associated with greater accessibility via roads) and logging of habitat are influencing the occurrence of this species. We propose several management actions to limit the negative influence of logging and logging roads on musk deer in Russia, including encouraging logging companies to set aside high conservation value forests (to retain intact forests) and to close logging roads post-harvest (to reduce access by poachers).