engleski

Genetics of restored population of Griffon vulture Gyps fulvus in Europe and in France

Conservation actions and reintroduction programmes have been carried out to restore viable populations of Griffon Vulture in the South of France. Demographic and genetic studies were run to assess and understand the success of these programmes. In this paper, we focus on the genetics of these restored populations. Using micro-satellite markers, we investigated genetic diversity and structure of three native colonies that were spatially fragmented around the Mediterranean basin. We then assessed the genetic characteristics of four founder groups of reintroduction programs, and two settled reintroduced colonies in France. We showed that genetic diversity is preserved in the reintroduced colonies, probably because of high immigration rates of Pyrenean or Spanish individuals. We thus confirm that settled reintroduction has been a success from the genetic point of view. Finally, we highlighted a non-invasive method to genetically tag Griffon Vultures, which brings new prospects for monitoring and behavioural studies. Preliminary results on intra-population spatial structure, foraging behaviour and mating system are also presented.

Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus; Population genetics

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