Genetic insights into the dynamics of hybridization between African elephant species
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Date
2024-01-09
Authors
Goodfellow, Claire
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Current evidence strongly supports the existence of two African elephant species – forest (Loxodonta cyclotis) and savanna (Loxodonta africana) – which are both highly threatened due to poaching and habitat loss. However, conservation assessments and management decisions for these species are difficult at sites where they are known to overlap and hybridize due to a lack of detailed knowledge regarding species identity and population abundance. In this work, I survey the elephants at two protected areas of high conservation priority (Bwindi Impenetrable and Kibale National Parks) in Western Uganda, a region containing the world’s largest African elephant hybrid zone. Using non-invasively collected genetic data, I elucidate the social and landscape-scale dynamics of these hybrid elephants for the first time.In Chapter II, I develop a high-throughput amplicon sequencing approach within a fecal DNA-based Capture Mark Recapture framework to jointly infer the population sizes and species compositions of elephants living at the two study sites. I find contrasting patterns of population abundance and species distribution between the two parks and suggest that a mix of natural and human-related landscape-scale processes may influence the patterns of hybridization observed throughout Western Uganda today.
In Chapter III, I implement social network analysis to elucidate characteristics of a hybrid elephant social system for the first time. I find that social groups in the Western Ugandan elephant population assort based on female philopatry rather than species identity and that group size correlates with genetic ancestry. I then sequence two uniparentally-inherited genetic markers and find that the history of hybridization in this region is context-dependent across both space and time.
Taken together, this body of work highlights the need for further research into the causes and consequences of hybridization between these two species, and it emphasizes that site-specific monitoring and management efforts will be critical to informing national and international conservation strategies for taxonomically undefined and admixed elephant populations across the African continent.
This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material.
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Keywords
Elephant, Genetic Mark-Recapture, Hybridization, Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis, Sociality