Geological and Pleistocene glaciations explain the demography and disjunct distribution of red panda (A. fulgens) in eastern Himalayas

Supriyo Dalui,Bheem Dutt Joshi,Lalit Kumar Sharma,Avijit Ghosh,Sujeet Kumar Singh,Kailash Chandra,Shambadeb Basu,Hiren Khatri,Mukesh Thakur

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-80586-6

Supriyo Dalui, Bheem Dutt Joshi + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80586-6

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Abstract

Pleistocene glaciations facilitated climatic oscillations that caused for enormous heterogeneity in landscapes, and consequently affected demography and distribution patterns of the mountain endemic species. In this context, we investigated demographic history and population genetic structure of red panda, distributed along the geographical proximity in the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Bayesian based phylogeny demonstrated that red panda diverged about 0.30 million years ago (CI 0.23–0.39) into two phylogenetic (sub) species, that correspond to the middle-late Pleistocene transition. The observed intraspecific clades with respect to Himalayan and Chinese red panda indicated restricted gene flow resulting from the Pleistocene glaciations in the eastern and southern Tibetan Plateau. We found Himalayan red panda population at least in KL-India declined abruptly in last 5–10 thousand years after being under demographic equilibrium. We suggest revisiting the ongoing conservation activities through cross border collaboration by developing multi-nationals, and multi-lateral species-oriented conservation action plans to support the red panda populations in transboundary landscapes.

Highlights

Pleistocene glaciations facilitated climatic oscillations that caused for enormous heterogeneity in landscapes, and affected demography and distribution patterns of the mountain endemic species
The sub-clade 1a in the major clade 1, represented sequences originated from West and Central Arunachal Pradesh while clade 1b and 1c contained sequences originated from Kangchenjunga landscape (KL)-India
We demonstrated that Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) harbours the habitat and occurrence of both the phylogenetic species of red panda, which diverged by Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh

Summary

Introduction

Pleistocene glaciations facilitated climatic oscillations that caused for enormous heterogeneity in landscapes, and affected demography and distribution patterns of the mountain endemic species. In this context, we investigated demographic history and population genetic structure of red panda, distributed along the geographical proximity in the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Pleistocene climatic oscillations driven circadian cooling and warming in the landscapes caused periodic range fluctuations and facilitated to shape distribution, population sizes and demography of the mountain dwelling species in east Asia[1,2]. Red panda (Ailurus fulgens), a magnificent iconic species of Central and Eastern Himalayas, has lost its potential habitat and declined abruptly over the last 20 years by losing about 50% of its wild population across the range with a probable 2500 viable individuals left in the w

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