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According to a new study by biologists from the University of Alberta, Yukon stone sheep, already rare, is 20% less common than previously thought.
The study examined 123 different DNA markers in approximately 2,800 fine-horned sheep in British Columbia and the Yukon, in order to map population boundaries. The results show a significant overestimation of some subspecies of fine horned sheep, such as Stone sheep, due to misclbadification.
"This means that population surveys, based on current maps, overestimate the number of Stone sheep in Canada," said Zijian Sim, Ph.D., a student in the Department of Biological Sciences. "When they are correctly clbadified as Dall's sheep, our results show that the rarest subspecies are even rarer than previously thought, about 20% less than that." did not think so before. "
Part of the problem comes from wildlife management units that are linked by traditional political, cultural and geographical criteria, which do not necessarily correspond to the boundaries of the biological population.
An error of identity
"The use of DNA markers allows us to directly measure genetic differentiation between populations, essentially allowing sheep to tell us the boundaries of these populations," said Sim, who conducted this research under the supervision of Professor David Coltman. "Unfortunately, we found that sheep tend to ignore our well-defined political and geographical lines."
The findings have implications for wildlife management and wildlife conservation efforts, highlighting the need for planning between jurisdictions where the mouflon population straddles political and geographical boundaries, such as wildlife. provincial boundaries or mountains. "In fact, our study has already led to discussions on co-management between the relevant regulators in BC and the Yukon for transboundary herds," said Sim.
The study stems from previous research on the erroneous clbadification of Stone sheep based on the color of their dress.
Explore further:
DNA badysis rewrites the history of lean sheep during the last ice age
More information:
Zijian Sim et al, Implications for the Management of the Genetic Structure of a Highly Determined Hierarchical Population in Fine-Horned Sheep, Genetics of conservation (2018). DOI: 10.1007 / s10592-018-1123-2
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