Past, present and future contributions of evolutionary biology to wildlife forensics, management and conservation

Abstract

Successfully implementing fundamental concepts into concrete applications is challenging in any given field. It requires communication, collaboration and shared will between researchers and practitioners. We argue that evolutionary biology, through research work linked to conservation, management and forensics, had a significant impact on wildlife agencies and department practices, where new frameworks and applications have been implemented over the last decades. The Quebec government's Wildlife Department (MFFP: Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs) has been proactive in reducing the “research–implementation” gap, thanks to prolific collaborations with many academic researchers. Among these associations, our department's outstanding partnership with Dr. Louis Bernatchez yielded significant contributions to harvest management, stocking programmes, definition of conservation units, recovery of threatened species, management of invasive species and forensic applications. We discuss key evolutionary biology concepts and resulting concrete examples of their successful implementation that derives directly or indirectly from this successful partnership. While old and new threats to wildlife are bringing new challenges, we expect recent developments in eDNA and genomics to provide innovative solutions as long as the research–implementation bridge remains open.

Population genetics of the freshwater fishProchilodus magdalenae(Characiformes: Prochilodontidae), using species-specific microsatellite loci

“…In this context, the species-specific microsatellite loci developed in this study seem to provide a good approach to study the population genetics of P. magdalenae considering that the levels of heterozygosity constitute a parameter used to estimate the genetic diversity of the populations. In addition to the applications in harvest management, stocking programs, definition of conservation units, recovery of threatened species, and management of invasive species, these tools may be useful in forensic genetics since partially degraded DNA samples are often found in this area (see Bourret et al, 2020 ).…”

dartR v2: an accessible genetic analysis platform for conservation, ecology, and agriculture

“…These functions accommodate the risk of false positive fixed differences likely to occur when samples sizes are small. A further application of identifying populations is the assignment of individuals of unknown provenance to their source population, which is particularly important in wildlife forensics to support law enforcement (Bourret et al, 2020). Functions such as gl.assign.pa() and gl.assign.pca() are capable of assigning individuals of unknown provenance to a population using private alleles ( i.e ., alleles that are exclusive to particular populations) and standardized proximity, respectively.…”

The Current Situation And Practice Of Wildlife Management In The United States And China

“…Louis Bernatchez emphasized on the important contributions to harvest management, stocking programs, definition of conservation units, recovery of threatened species, management of invasive species and forensic applications. In the fields of wildlife management, conservation and forensics (Figure 2), the Quebec government wildlife department greatly benefits from the maturity of genetics and genomics (Bourret et al 2020). showing the implementation outcomes set in motion by the integration of evolutionary applications (Bourret et al 2020).…”

“…In the fields of wildlife management, conservation and forensics (Figure 2), the Quebec government wildlife department greatly benefits from the maturity of genetics and genomics (Bourret et al 2020). showing the implementation outcomes set in motion by the integration of evolutionary applications (Bourret et al 2020).…”