California Mountain Lions

        Puma concolor, or the mountain lion goes by many names. Puma, cougar, catamount and panther are just a few. While the mountain lion goes by many names, it's genetic code remains relatively the same. Although the mountain are not in direct danger of extinction, their population is decreasing at a high rate. The mountain lion itself is what is known as a indicator species. This means that the speices can be used as a great reference on how an environemnt is doing, and how well the environement has remained connected. The large cat also acts as an umbrella species. These "umbrella species" are extremely important biologically and ecologically. Umbrella species are usually greatly monitored and protected beceause in protecting them, many other species become protected indirectly. Due to this, conservation techniques have been put in place in many areas where the puma exist. However in a recent study to observe how geography changes genes, researchers stumbled upon something rather interesting.
      431 mountain lions from various location were used in a study to collect data about the levels of genetic diversity among the species. In order to accomplish this 12 microsatellites loci were analyzed in each cat. After looking closely at the data gathered, it was found that each cat had distinct genetic  subdivisions that were specific to the region they were from. It was found that cats from coastal regions displayed more heterozygosity than the cats sampled from inland areas. Heterozygosity is important in population genetics, as the heterozygote advantage plays a large role in species survival. Scientists came to the conclusion that geographic barriers like the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fransisco Bay and the Central Valley turned out to be enormous barriers to natural gene flow of the species. The disruption of gene flow can result in many things particularly different allele frequencies among the species. Metapopulations in Southern California have exhibited normal gene flow but recently human development has increased how hard it is for populations to travel, which in turn decreased gene flow. With this, human development has displaced many of these large cats leading them to environments their ancestors did not inhabit before, or into urban areas. These new environments present challenges for the species, one which they may not actually be able to survive.
    In essence this study provided conservationists with a ton of new data to analyze, think about and act upon in the coming years. Most importantly, it displayed an important concept. Conservation genetics, and genetic preservation. This study indicates that not every case can be treated the same way. Each population of these cougars has different genetic subdivisions, and faces different enviroenmtal cahllenges. From this work, scientists hope to come up with movement corridors in unpopulated regions, to help the pumas travel from area to area, and increase biological diversity.  Landscape-level conservation is not only crucial to the survival of this species, but crucial in helping the species become more heterozygotic.
      This study was awesome because it really shows the connectedness of species between each other. In protecting the mountain lion, you protect the big horn sheep, which in turns help stabilize plant growth, and the list goes on and on about the connectedness of the mountain lion to almost everything it interacts with. Population genetics are studied extensively with animal populations, and I hope to work with wildlife one day, so reading these articles get me excited for the future. Hopefully measures can be put in place so that these animals can travel more freely and give themselves a fighting chance against their ever-changing environment.


https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024069014911

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181221142514.htm

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/highways-fragment-southern-california-mountain-lion-gene-pool/
       

Cats Domesticated Humans

        The house cat is the most popular pet in the world. Today's house cat is only domesticated species in the family Felidae. This carnivorous mammal comes in 60+ recognized breeds from designer breeds, like the Toyger, to regular mixed breeds like the domestic short-hair. At one point, these animals were bred for milk, fur, labor, or meat. However, it has been long believed by scholars that around 3,600 years ago Egyptians started to keep them as pets. However, new research in the last 10 years has given us a more knowledge on our relationship with cats, and how they evolved with humans.
        Researchers examined 1,000 wild and domestic cats to help determine which subspecies of wildcat gave rise to today's domestic cat. Wildcats are very territorial and typically defend their homes for life. This lead researchers to believe that although the genetic composition of the cats would vary from region to region, in each particular region the genetic composition would be fairly stable over time.  In analyzing their collected data, they were able to determine that the DNA clustered into 5 groups, Middle Eastern Wildcat, Central Asian Wildcat, South African wildcat, European wildcat, Chinese Mountain cat, and Sand Wildcat.  They noticed that wildcats from each of these groups can all have their ancestry traced back to the same region, today's Middle East, and that all are descendants from the wildcat F.s. lybica. In comparing the mitochondrial DNA, and DNA microsatelites of the domestic cat to the wildcat data, it became clear the domestication occurred again in the Middle East. Leading researchers to now believe that domestication actually occurred in the Fertile Crescent and not Egypt.
                                                          (Scottish wildcat)

        With new genetic evidence pointing to the Fertile Crescent as the sight of domestication, another break-through discovery was made in cat domestication. In 2004, on the island Cyprus, archeologist uncovered human remains buried next to a cat. After dating the evidence, it was determined to be 9,500 years old, roughly 6,000 years before the Egyptian domestication theory. This finding is extremely crucial in dating the domestication of house cats because wildcats are not native to the island Cyprus, meaning the only way a feline could have gotten there is if it was transported there by boat.  This suggests again, that people of the Middle East had been keeping cats long before Egyptians, and were even transporting them on boats.
       The newest theory of cat domestication revolves around the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent. It is believed that maybe humans did not originally intend to domesticate cats at all, and the felines were exploiting our newly found agriculture to survive. Wildcats are strictly carnivourous animals, so crops do not appeal to them, however, the new rodents that came along with farming did. Wildcats could take advantage of the field new mice and rodents that came along with humans newest agriculture trend. When thinking about the domestication of the house cat, it's quite comical that essentially cats have not served much purpose to humans. They do not listen to commands. Do not carry out specific tasks for humans unless it benefits them. And rarely do they want to be held captive inside a house. Even the house cats of today still display these qualities.
        All of this evidence comes down to one new theory. Humans never domesticated cats. Cats just chose to live near us because we provided them food. In today's day we still provide them with food but also with shelter, and in typical cat fashion, they even have us picking up their feces and throwing it out for them. It seems like cats really have domesticated us in a way that their wildcat ancestors could only dream.
       I love cats, and thought this article was great because it gave insight into a thought that is commonly misinterpreted. Humans never really domesticated cats with a particular purpose.  It is remarkable to think that we now take care of our house cats because their ancestors decided to feed on the rodents from ancient crops. When thinking of dogs, horses, chickens, or most domesticated species the animal typically serves a purpose. However, without the mice for cats to eat in the Fertile Crescent, cats would probably not be house pets today, and most definitely not the most popular one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5790555/
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5837/519
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GgUwg6gU7n4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA179&dq=cat+domestication&ots=V07J3Eg67f&sig=MeFR_gQpnNMzWgwk9Ggbmk16uTo#v=onepage&q=cat%20domestication&f=false

Wolf-Dog Hybridization Common in Caucasus Region

In a recent article, which discusses a study published in the Journal of Heredity, researchers have found that hybridization of wolves with shepherd dogs in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia is more common than what it was thought to be. Dr. Natia Kopaliani, Dr. David Tarknishvili, and colleagues from the Institute of Ecology at Ilia State University in Georgia and the Tbilisi Zoo have found that recent ancestry in about ten percent of sampled wolves and dogs. From their sampled population, two to three percent were linked as first-generation hybrids. Shepherd dogs studied were local breeds from the area that were used to guard livestock from predators, such as wolves.

Researchers fear that this hybrid species may lack fear of humans as there has been an increase of attack on humans and cattle since the 2000's. To confirm their results, researchers examined mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers. Microsatellite markers are used to study hybridization due to their ability to mutate easily and because of the fact that they are highly variable even within a single population. More about the wolf-dog hybrid species can be read here.