Refining the Whooping Crane Studbook by Incorporating Microsatellite DNA and Leg‐Banding Analyses

Abstract

We sought to refine genetic management of the endangered Whooping Crane ( Grus americana ) population by developing comprehensive genetic pedigrees for the captive population. Improvements to the studbook were accomplished by addition of pedigree information derived from leg‐banding data on wild juvenile and founder similarity coefficients calculated from microsatellite DNA profiles to the original studbook pedigree. Incorporation of pedigrees derived from data on leg‐banding of wild juveniles did not greatly alter the previous relatedness structure of the captive population, but incorporation of microsatellite similarity coefficients produced a substantially different view of the population structure. Microsatellite data provided new information on shared founder genotypes and provided a new DNA–based studbook pedigree that will assist in genetic management of the Whooping Crane population.

Bibliographic Information