Abstract
The leopard, Panthera pardus, is a threatened species in its range throughout the world. Although, historically, the Korean Peninsula had a high population density of leopards, they were extirpated from South Korea by 1970, leaving almost no genetic specimens. Traditionally, Korean leopards are classified as Panthera pardus orientalis; however, their classification is based only on locality and morphology. Therefore, there is a need for genetic studies to identify the phylogenetic status of Korean leopards at the subspecies level. Presently, no extant wild specimen is available from South Korea; therefore, we extracted genetic material from the old skin of a leopard captured in Jirisan, South Korea in the 1930s and conducted the first phylogenetic study of the South Korean leopard. A total of 726 bp of mitochondrial DNA, including segments of the NADH5 and control region, were amplified by PCR. A phylogenetic analysis of the fragment, along with sequences of nine leopard subspecies from GenBank revealed that the extinct South Korean leopard belonged to the Asian leopard group and in the same clade as the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis). Thus, the leopard that inhabited South Korea in the past was of the same subspecies as the Amur leopard population currently inhabiting the transboundary region of Russia, China, and North Korea. These results emphasize the importance of conserving the endangered wild Amur leopard population (estimated to be about 60–80 individuals) in Russia and China, for future restoration of leopards in the Korean Peninsula.
Highlights
The leopard, Panthera pardus, is a generalist carnivore among the large cat species and was historically distributed throughout a large part of the world (Nowell & Jackson, 1996; Jacobson et al, 2016)
DNA from an old skin of the Korean leopard was successfully extracted and targeted fragments of NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (NADH5), control region (CR) and cytochrome b were amplified from mitochondrial DNA
KOR1 differed from ORI2 in only two nucleotide sites—one in the NADH5 segment and the other in the CR segment (Table 1)
Summary
The leopard, Panthera pardus, is a generalist carnivore among the large cat species and was historically distributed throughout a large part of the world (Nowell & Jackson, 1996; Jacobson et al, 2016). Throughout Asia, leopards were considered harmful animals that threatened public safety and their skins were mainly collected as tributes and trophies in the past (Jacobson et al, 2016; Jo & Baccus, 2016). These animals were systematically captured over a long period of time, from the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) through the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers that the leopard has been extinct in South Korea and estimates the extinction occurred after 1969 but the exact time is not know because tracks have been seen after that (Nowell & Jackson, 1996; Stein et al, 2016)
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