Genetic Structure And Individual Spatial Distribution Of An Isolated Long-tailed Goral (Naemorhedus Caudatus) Population At Inner Mongolia Saihanwula National Natural Reserve

Space utilization symbolized the use pattern and activity pattern of environmental resources by wildlife animals within the habitat,which will affect the gene exchange among populations and the survival and development of the populations.Long-tailed goral(Naemorhedus caudatiLs)is a species of family Bovidae,Naemorhedus,it is categorized as a Near Threatened species by the IUCN Red List,and classified as Endangered species in the China Mammal Red List.The habitat of long-tailed goral populations in Inner Mongolia Saihanwula National Nature Reserve is surrounded by villages and isolated to other habitats.In this paper,we utilized molecular markers based on non-invasive fecal sampling,combining GIS technology to analyze the population structure and spatial distribution of long-tailed goral populations in the habitat.The main results are listed as follow:1)Using molecular markers on mitochondrial genes,microsatellite genes and sex-linked genes,we identified 101 long-tailed goral individuals from 589 suspected fecal samples.Among them,58 individuals are female,and 43 individuals are male,female:male=1.35:1(?2=2.23,P>0.05).2)36 alleles were amplified from 7 microsatellite loci,the average allele number per locus is 5.43,the average heterozygosity of the population is 0.676,the average polymorphic information content is 0.624.We categorized 4 subpopulations(D,Z,J,E)according to the geographic locations of fecal samples.Genetic differentiation coefficient(FST)among 4 subpopulations were very small(from 0.032 to 0.099),besides Bayesian clustering analysis clustered individuals into 1 clade,all these results indicated there was no significant genetic structure among subpopulations.3)We screened out 17 individuals that were recognized over 4 times and calculated their home range sizes in ArcMap 10.2.The mean home range size of long-tailed goral was 20.09 hm2,and mean home range size of male long-tailed goral was 22.45 hm2,mean home range size of female long-tailed goral was 18.51 hm2,there were no significant differences between the sexes.4)We employed 2 methods to estimate the sex biased dispersal of long-tailed goral populations.Results from Assessment test and Spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that males were tended to disperse.While assessment test for subpopulation J and E showed a trend of female dispersal,thus we infer that patterns of dispersal in long-tailed goral populations are affected by multiple factors,thus both sexes are possible to disperse.5)According to our results,the long-tailed goral population maintained a moderate genetic diversity in the limited suitable habitat,the home range sizes and dispersal patterns did not diverse significantly from mountain ungulates from continuous habitats,indicating that the survival resources in the nature reserve is enough for current long-tailed gorals.In the future work of population protection and management,due to the isolated state of the habitat,more attention should be paid to the population density,and proper supplement of food and salt lick should be made to reduce the survival pressure and enhance their ability to resist disease,ensuring the healthy development of the population.