Genetic data confirm critical status of the reintroduced Dinaric population of Eurasian lynx

Abstract

Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) reintroduction to the Dinaric Mountains is considered one of the most successful reintroductions of a large predator. Six reintroduced ani- mals founded the population, which rapidly expanded from Slovenia, through Croatia, and all the way to Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, a decrease of the population size has been observed during the last 10-15 years. Considering that possible inbreeding depression would be additive to threats like poaching, traffic mortality and prey base depletion, another extinction of this species from the Dinaric Mountains is a real possibility. We analyzed 204 samples collected between 1979 and 2010 using twenty microsatellite loci and 900-bp mitochondrial DNA control region sequence to evaluate conservation genetics aspects of this endangered population. Both markers confirmed low genetic variability of the Dinaric lynx population, and considerable effective inbreeding (0.3) compared to the source Carpathian population. Our analysis of effective population size and microsatellite variability supported field observations of decreasing population number. As a natural recolonization is a very remote possibility, we recommend population augmentation from a large source population.