The challenge of incorporating ex situ strategies for jaguar conservation

Abstract

The loss of biodiversity is an ongoing process and existing efforts to halt it are based on different conservation strategies. The ‘One Plan approach’ introduced by The International Union for Conservation of Nature proposes to consider all populations of a species under a unified management plan. In this work we follow this premise in order to unify in situ and ex situ management of one of the most critically endangered mammals in Argentina, the jaguar (Panthera onca). We assessed pedigrees of captive animals, finding that 44.93% of the reported relatedness was erroneous according to molecular data. Captive individuals formed a distinct genetic cluster. The three remaining locations for jaguars in Argentina constitute two genetic groups, the Atlantic Forest and the Chaco–Yungas clusters. Genetic variability is low compared with other populations of the species in the Americas and it is not significantly different between wild and captive populations in Argentina. These findings demonstrate that genetic studies aiming to include captive individuals into conservation management are very valuable, and should incorporate several parameters such as mean individual relatedness, individual inbreeding, rare and private alleles, and mitochondrial haplotypes. Finally, we discuss two ongoing ex situ management actions and postulate the need for genetic monitoring of the breeding and release of animals.