ASSESSING THE GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THE FREE RANGING ASIAN ELEPHANT (Elephas maximus) POPULATION OF WAYANAD WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
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Date
2015-10-31
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Kerala Veterinary and animal science university, Pookode
Abstract
Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) have a high influence in the culture, religion and
economy, but are facing extinction in the wild. The selective poaching of male
elephants for ivory leads to skewed sex ratios, which result in inbreeding and a drastic
decline in population size. In this study, the genetic variability of Asian Elephant
(Elephas maximus) population of Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary was assessed using
microsatellites markers. The observed polymorphism was low at the tri and tetra
nucleotide loci in the samples analysed (n=28). The observed heterozygosity (0.029)
was lower than the expected heterozygosity (0.915) and the mean observed
heterozygosity was almost half of the expected heterozygosity indicating very high
occurrence of inbreeding.
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