Abstract
The Asian elephant Elephas maximus is threatened with extinction unless intensive conservation and captive-breeding programmes are implemented without delay. The success of breeding programmes depends critically on maintenance of genetic diversity within captive populations; hence, the accurate assignment of paternity of progeny is of considerable importance. Determination of paternity from field observations is complicated by the fact that oestrous ♀♀ may mate with more than one ♂. The aim of this study was to use DNA fingerprinting to establish the paternity of three Asian elephant calves born at Pin-nawela Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka. DNA was extracted from blood samples taken from the calves, their dams and three putative sires, and fingerprinted using the multi-locus DNA probe 33.15. The sire of each calf was identified unambiguously by comparative analysis of the DNA fingerprints of the calf and dam with those of each bull. Results from a pairwise comparison of band-sharing probabilities confirmed the paternity identification.
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