Effective number of breeders and maintenance of genetic diversity in the captive bearded vulture population

We combined pedigree data with data derived from 14 microsatellite loci to investigate genetic diversity and its maintenance in the captive source population for the reintroduction of the bearded vulture into the Alps. We found the captive population to be genetically more variable than the largest natural population in Europe, both in terms of mean number of alleles per locus and mean observed and expected heterozygosity. Allelic diversity of the captive population was higher than, and mean heterozygosity measurements were comparable with the ones found in two large, extinct populations from Sardinia and the Alps represented by museum specimens. The amount of genetic variability recruited with the founders was still present in the captive population of the year 2000, mainly because the carriers of rare alleles were still alive. However, the decline in expected heterozygosity and the loss of alleles over generations in captivity was significant. Point estimates of effective population size, Ne, based on pedigree data and estimates of effective number of breeders, Nb, based on allele frequency changes, ranged from 20 to 30 and were significantly smaller than the census size. The results demonstrate that the amount of genetic variability in the captive bearded vulture population is comparable or even larger than the amount present in natural populations. However, the population is in danger to lose genetic variability over time because of genetic drift. Management strategies should therefore aim at preserving genetic variability by minimising kinship, and at increasing Ne by recruiting additional founders and enhancing gene flow between the released, the captive and natural populations.