Infanticide in brown bear: a case-study in the Italian Alps – Genetic identification of perpetrator and implications in small populations

Abstract

Sexually Selected Infanticide (SSI) is thought of as a male reproductive strategy in social mammalian species, because females who lose cubs may quickly re-enter oestrus. SSI has rarely been documented in non-social mammals and, in brown bears, SSI has been studied mainly in an eco-ethological perspective. The authors examined the first genetically documented infanticide case which occurred in May 2015 in brown bears in Italy (Trentino, Central-Eastern Alps). The infanticide killed two cubs and their mother. Hair samples were collected from the corpses as well as saliva, through swabs on mother’s wounds, with the aim of identifying the genotype of the perpetrator. The samples were genotyped by PCR amplification of 15 autosomal microsatellite loci, following the protocol routinely used for individual bear identifications within the Interregional Action Plan for Brown Bear Conservation in the Central-Eastern Alps (PACOBACE). Reliable genotypes were obtained from the mother, cubs and putative perpetrator. The genotypes were matched with those populating the PACOBACE database and genealogies were reconstructed. Both mother and perpetrator genotypes were already present in the database. Kinship analyses confirmed mother-cubs relationships and identified the father of the cubs. In this study, for the first time, the authors used the open-source LRmix STUDIO software, designed to analyse human forensic genetic profiles, to solve a case in wildlife. Through LRmix STUDIO, those alleles that do not belong to the victims were isolated and, finally, the perpetrator was identified. This study presents a method that allows, through the application of different models, the genetic identification of the conspecific perpetrator with the highest probability. The identification of the infanticidal male is relevant for the better management and conservation of wild populations with small effective population size (Ne) and low population growth rate, especially in the case of recently established populations in human-dominated landscapes. This procedure will have predictably wide applications, supplying important data in the monitoring of small and isolated populations.