IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
©IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group
Abstracts
The Status of the Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra) In Central Asia: A Literature Review
Pages 106 - 121 (Review)
Melissa Savage, Aleksey Oleynikov, Gleb Sedash, and Li Fei
The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is rare in Central Asia. Otter populations are small and fragmented and appear to be declining in most parts of the region. Diminishing freshwater resources, high human population density in river valleys, river pollution, and a weak focus on nature conservation, make the long-term survival of the species in the region highly threatened. Here, we review the available literature about the Eurasian otter from recent decades in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and far northwestern China. Central Asia can be considered a “white spot” in terms of otter research, with extremely limited available data suggesting a compelling need for further study and conservation measures.
Contents | Full
Text + Links | PDF (779 KB)
Large-Scale Identification of Microsatellite Loci from Multiple Otter (Mammalia, Carnivora, Lutrinae) Species using Whole Genome Sequence Data
Pages 120 - 132 (Article)
Vera De Ferran, Channelle Ee Eun Chua, Philip Johns, Eduardo Eizirik, and Klaus-Peter Koepfli
The development of molecular studies on elusive, rare, and/or poorly known species faces challenges due to the lack of suitable markers. Species-specific microsatellite markers minimize bias, offer better performance, and are cost-effective, aiding the development of population genetic studies. The use of whole-genome sequences allows for the development of species-specific microsatellite markers and their survey in closely related species, enabling the discovery of shared markers that can facilitate comparative studies. Lutrinae includes 14 extant species of otters. Despite their worrisome conservation status, due to inherent characteristics of these species that make their study difficult by traditional methods, many of them lack reliable population genetic data, limiting conservation efforts. In this study, we employed a multi-taxon approach to identify a large number of novel microsatellite loci for 11 of the 14 otter species, assessing whether the identified loci were shared among different taxa. We identified a total of 23,320 microsatellite loci across 11 species, which were reduced to 12,573 after stringent filtering criteria. Primer design was completed successfully for 420 and 259 unique loci, considering two minimum melting temperatures. We validated marker efficiency by testing the 81 loci designed for two Asian species. Of these, 51 loci yielded reliable microsatellite genotypes in both species, with 34 showing allelic variation in at least one of them. These results demonstrate that these markers are applicable in empirical genotyping for both their target species and closely related ones.
Contents | Full
Text + Links | PDF (646 KB)