Application of molecular sexing to free-ranging Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in southern India

Vidya, TNC and Kumar, Roshan V and Arivazhagan, C and Sukumar, R (2003) Application of molecular sexing to free-ranging Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in southern India. In: Current Science, 85 (7).

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Abstract

Selective poaching of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) males for ivory has resulted in highly female-biased adult sex ratios, necessitating regular monitoring of population structure and demography. We demonstrate that molecular sexing from dung-extracted DNA, based on ZFX-ZFY fragment amplification and ZFY-specific BamHI site restriction, can be applied to estimate sex ratios of free-ranging Asian elephants, in addition to or instead of field demographic methods. The adult sex ratios using molecular sexing in Nagarahole and Mudumalai-Bandipur reserves during May 2001 were 1:3.1, which matched the demography-based sex ratio for the same month, and 1:9.4, respectively.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Current Science
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Keywords:	Molecular sexing;Asian elephant;Elephas maximus;sex ratio;ZFX-ZFY
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2005
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:12
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/184

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