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Rapid assessment of adult abundance and demographic connectivity from juvenile kin pairs in a critically endangered species

Authors :
Toby A. Patterson
Richard M. Hillary
Peter M. Kyne
Richard D. Pillans
Rasanthi M. Gunasekera
James R. Marthick
Grant J. Johnson
Pierre Feutry
Source :
Science advances. 8(51)
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

The viability of spatially structured populations depends on the abundance and connectivity between subpopulations of breeding adults. Yet, for many species, both are extremely difficult to assess. The speartooth shark is a critically endangered elasmobranch inhabiting tropical rivers with only three adults ever recorded in Australia. Close-kin mark-recapture models, informed by sibling pairs among 226 juveniles, were developed to estimate adult abundance and connectivity in two Australian river systems. Sixty-eight sibling pairs were found, and adult abundance was estimated at 892 for the Adelaide River and 1128 for the Alligator Rivers. We found strong evidence for female philopatry, with most females returning to the same river to pup. Adelaide River males appear largely philopatric, whereas Alligator Rivers males are highly connected to the Adelaide River. From only 4 years of sampling, our results demonstrate that juvenile-only kin pairs can inform simultaneous estimates of abundance and connectivity in a rare and threatened species.

Subjects

Subjects :
Multidisciplinary

Details

ISSN :
23752548
Volume :
8
Issue :
51
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Science advances
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....6d0d90576bd44551a9f2e66d905dd6ae