Abstract
The tradition of animal husbandry in the context of a nomadic lifestyle has been of great significance in the Mongolian society. Both Bactrian camels and horses have been invaluable for the survival and development of human activities in the harsh arid environment of the Mongolian steppe. As camels offer unique and sustainable opportunities for livestock production in marginal agro-ecological zones, we investigated the current genetic diversity of three local Mongolian camel breeds and compared their levels of variation with common native Mongolian camels distributed throughout the country. Based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers, we found levels of genetic diversity in Mongolian populations similar to that reported for Chinese Bactrian camels and for dromedaries. Little differentiation was detected between single breeds, except for a small group originating from the northwestern Mongolian Altai. We found neither high inbreeding levels in the different breeds nor evidence for a population decline. Although the Mongolian camel census size has severely declined over the past 20 years, our analyses suggest that there still exists a stable population with adequate genetic variation for continued sustainable utilization.
Highlights
Mongolia has successfully preserved pasture-supported animal husbandry under the conditions of a traditional nomadic lifestyle
Considering the low variation in blood protein loci, which potentially underestimate variability (Tapio et al 2003), we investigated the genetic diversity in Mongolian Bactrian camels using nuclear and mitochondrial markers
In all estimates of diversity and population divergence, we included only unrelated individuals (r < 0.5; Wang 2011) and considered the camels from the northwestern Mongolian Uvs province (MNT-NW) as a separate population based on our clustering results
Summary
Mongolia has successfully preserved pasture-supported animal husbandry under the conditions of a traditional nomadic lifestyle. Mongolian herders have maintained five types of livestock: Bactrian camels, horses, cattle, sheep and goats. The domestication history of the other livestock species is well explored, our understanding of Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) domestication is still incomplete. Recent studies have suggested that domestication took place in the Central and Eastern Asian Steppe around 6000 years ago (Peters & von den Driesch 1997; Trinks et al 2012; Burger 2012). The relationship between domestic and wild camels (Camelus ferus) is comparable to that of domestic and wild horses (Equus ferus przewalskii). Bayesian reconstructions of the demographic history do not support the Przewalski’s horse as direct
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