Press release on genetic variability of Indian Tigers

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Please find attached the press release from the National Center for

Biological Sciences in Bangalore on the genetic variability of Indian tigers. I

have the paper too and would be willing to share it.

Regards,

 

*14 August 2009

 

Indian subcontinent tigers may hold key to global tiger recovery.

Tigers in the Indian subcontinent retain 60â€70% of global genetic

variability, according to results published August 14 in the openâ€access

journal *PLoS Genetics*.

Researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, the

Wildlife Conservation Society, New York and Centre for Wildlife Studies,

Bangalore, show this genetic diversity remains despite evidence of a relatively

recent, potentially humanâ€induced population

crash 200 years ago. These results suggest that Indian subcontinent tigers may

be a worthy focus for conservation efforts. Tigers are a globally threatened

species with only around 3,000 surviving in just 7% of their historical range.

Conservation efforts may be bolstered by prioritizing regions that harbor more

tigers and trying to capture most of the remaining habitat diversity and genetic

variation, the latter of which is largely unknown.

 

With this in mind, Uma Ramakrishnan and her team collected nonâ€invasive fecal

samples from 73 individual tigers across varied habitats in the Indian

subcontinent to obtain genetic data. Their comparisons of genetic diversity

within and outside the Indian subcontinent revealed that Indian tigers retain

more than half of the

extant variation. The authors attribute this high genetic diversity to a

historically large population size of about 58,200 tigers for peninsular India

south of the Gangetic plains.

 

In the global context of tiger conservation, these results suggest that tigers

in the Indian subcontinent are critically important for the future survival and

recovery of the species.

 

That Indian tigers have managed to retain their genetic diversity in the face of

such high anthropogenic pressure provides new hope for the species’ survival

in the future.

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Press Release

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