Genetic Diversity Of The Balck Muntjac Population From Different Geographies And Effects Of Habitat Fragmentation On Gene Flow

Black muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons) ,which is one of the rarest deer in the world, belongs to Cervidae. As a typical semi-tropical forest species, black muntjac is listed on Category I of the List of Chinese State Key Protected Wildlife Animals. For strengthening the protection of black muntjac, the World Conservation Union(IUCN) considered it as vulnerable species. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES) also place it in addendum I and VU level. Black muntjac is one of the rarest deer in the world.In the last several decades, the habitat of Black muntjac has been seriously damaged because of mankind behavior, such as, excessive deforestation, exploitation of the mountain areas, and so on. As a result, the habitat of Black muntjac is becoming smaller and smaller and is cutting into small fragments. Nowdays, it is only distributed in the narrow ranges in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian Provinces(117～121.5°E, 27.5～31°N). There is two centers in this habitat, one is the center of Wanzhe. which contains Mountain Jiuhua and Mountain Huang (from Mountain Tianmu of Zhejiang in the east to Mountain Shier of Kaihua in the south);the other is the center of Suichang, which involves Mountain Niutou and Mountain Baiyun. As a result of the habitat fragmentation, the populations of Black muntjac were isolated. For fragmented populations with only very limited gene flow between subpopulations, the genetic diversity of populations will decline. Finally the habitat fragmentation will result in degradation of subsistence capability of populations. Not only isolated populations are confronted with great pressure of evolution, but also are face with large threaten from the environment. In order to design effective conservation strategies, there is need for us to study genetic diversity of the black muntjac population from different geographies and effects of habitat fragmentation on gene flow of the black muntjac.We did research on genetic diversity of the black muntjac population from different...