Genetic Assessment of a Captive Population of Eurasian Stone-Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus), Source for the Reinforcement of Wild Populations

Although ex situ conservation programs are increasingly valuable support tools for in situ conservation measures, success depends on these captive individuals to be genetically representative of the recipient population. The Eurasian stone-curlew (<i>Burhinus oedicnemus</i>) inhabit steppes that represent some of the most degraded and exploited habitats worldwide. A captive breeding program was implemented in Morocco as a pre-emptive effort for the conservation of the North African subspecies <i>Burhinus oedicnemus saharae</i>. However, the genetic origins of the founders of the captive flock were unknown. We applied a multi-locus approach to characterize the genetic ancestry of the current captive breeding flock by comparing it to wild populations from both Western and Eastern Morocco. Mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers were employed to assess levels of genetic diversity and relatedness within each sample, as well as potential genetic differentiation between wild and captive samples through PCA and admixture analyses. We recovered similar genetic diversity estimates, low levels of relatedness, and little differentiation between captive and wild samples. These results confirmed the Moroccan origin of the founders. We provide recommendations for the optimization of the Eurasian Stone Curlew conservation breeding program but also for future conservation breeding programs to ensure the effective conservation of genetic diversity and wild populations.