Abstract
The critically endangered kākāpō, an herbivorous parrot endemic to New Zealand, is subject to intensive management to increase its population size. Key aspects of the management program include supplementary feeding and translocation of kākāpō between different predator-free islands to optimize the genetic composition of the breeding populations. While these practices have helped boost the kākāpō population, their impact on the kākāpō fecal microbiota is uncertain. Previous studies have found that the kākāpō possesses a low-diversity fecal microbiota, typically dominated by Escherichia/Shigella spp. However, the question of whether the low diversity of the kākāpō fecal microbiota is an inadvertent consequence of human interventions has yet to be investigated. To that end, we used high-throughput Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons obtained from fecal material of 63 kākāpō representing different diets, islands, and ages. Remarkably, neither supplementary feeding nor geographic location were associated with significant differences in the overall fecal microbial community structures of adult kākāpō, suggesting that the kākāpō's low-diversity fecal microbiota is both inherent to this species and robust to these external influences.
Highlights
The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a critically endangered herbivorous parrot endemic to New Zealand, notable for its flightlessness, large size (1.3–4 kg), and lek mating system (Powlesland et al, 2006)
We began by assessing the distributions of major taxa and alpha diversity across all collected samples. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that the kakapofecal microbiota is dominated by members of the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes (75.5 and 23.5% of all sequences respectively; Figure 1), in line with previous studies (Waite et al, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Two operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified as Escherichia/Shigella appeared in all samples
Summary
The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a critically endangered herbivorous parrot endemic to New Zealand, notable for its flightlessness, large size (1.3–4 kg), and lek mating system (Powlesland et al, 2006). Considerable effort has been devoted to the conservation of this species, which was decimated in the last century by habitat destruction and introduced mammalian predators. The kakapois confined to a small number of predator-free offshore islands, where it is intensively managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (NZDOC) (Clout, 2006). Scientifically-informed management practices, including supplementary feeding and relocation among different islands, have helped the population increase from a low point of 51 birds in 1995 (Powlesland et al, 2006) to nearly 160 as of late 2016. In an attempt to further aid conservation efforts, kakaporesearch interests have recently
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