Is it time for genetic reinforcement of French Iberian ibex populations?

Abstract

An evolutionary significant unit of the Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica), the Pyrenean ibex or “bucardo” (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) became extinct in its natural range, the Pyrenees, at the beginning of the twentieth-first century. Several years later (2014–2021) more than 250 specimens (C. p. victoriae) coming from the same donor population from central Spain were released in four localities of the French Pyrenees. Despite an initial fast demographic increase, the genetic variability of these populations remains low. Moreover, it is expected that genetic variability continues to decline due to genetic drift and that inbreeding accumulates. Here we revise options for genetic rescue or reinforcement of these populations involving future release of animals from different extant Spanish populations, mainly those belonging to the subpecies C. p. hispanica. The future hybridization between both phenotypes or “subspecies” may occur anyways in the next years, since currently there is a natural expansion of C. P. hispanica populations from the southern Pyrenees (Spanish side).