NONINVASIVE GENETIC TRACKING OF THE ENDANGERED PYRENEAN BROWN BEAR POPULATION

Pyrenean brown bears Ursus arctos are threatened with extinction. Mana gement efforts to preserve this population require a comprehensive kno wledge of the number and sex of the remaining individuals and their re spective home ranges. This goal has been achieved using a combination of noninvasive genetic sampling of hair and faeces collected in the fi eld and corresponding track size data. Genotypic data were collected a t 24 microsatellite loci using a rigorous multiple-tubes approach to a void genotyping errors associated with low quantities of DNA. Based on field and genetic data, the Pyrenean population was shown to be compo sed at least of one yearling, three adult males, and one adult female. These data indicate that extinction of the Pyrenean brown bear popula tion is imminent without population augmentation. To preserve the rema ining Pyrenean gene pool and increase genetic diversity, we suggest th at managers consider population augmentation using only females. This study demonstrates that comprehensive knowledge of endangered small po pulations of mammals can be obtained using noninvasive genetic samplin g.