Tigers' purebred ancestry 'raises conservation value'
Monday, 21 Apr 2008 11:02
Many captive tigers are purebred subspecies, study says
In Focus
We take a look at the highs and lows of the past five decades of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). Full Story
Many apparently generic tigers held in captivity around the world actually represent purebred subspecies, scientists claim.
An international collaboration of researchers say the discovery means that these tigers have genetic diversity no longer found in nature, raising the importance of their conservation.
They made the discovery after using a new method for assessing the genetic ancestry of tigers.
They applied the method to samples from 105 captive tigers from 14 countries collected over 20 years.
Of those, 49 individuals were found to represent one of five purebred subspecies and the rest of the cats had mixed backgrounds.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, the researchers argue that the proportion of purebreds observed in their study will be an overestimate for captive tigers worldwide.
But they add: "If 14 to 23 per cent of the over 15,000 existing captive tigers would prove to be VSA[verified subspecies ancestry], the number of tigers with pure subspecies heritage available for conservation consideration would considerably increase.
"A wide-ranging identification of captive VSA tigers to assess their potential for inclusion into comprehensive, integrated in situ and ex situ management plans could significantly increase population sizes and help maintain genetic variability and population viability of this iconoclastic species," the study's authors conclude.
