Status and Genetic Diversity of Hipposideros pratti in the Northernmost
Part of Its Distribution
Abstract
Hipposideros pratti is species of bat distributed in caves from
Southeast Asia to the Qinling-Funiu Mountain area in China. To
understand the dynamic changes in its distribution and evaluate the
current health status of the species, we reviewed 48 caves in the
northernmost area of the H. pratti distribution and conducted the first
analysis of genetic diversity for the species in the region. H. pratti
was only detected in three caves, the four previously distributed caves
and the remaining 41 previously undistributed caves were not observed.
An analysis based on microsatellite markers revealed a few key points.
1) The average number of observed alleles (Na) of H. pratti in the
region was 3.94, and the average observed heterozygosity (Ho) was
0.5293. All three populations were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. 2)
Intra-population was the predominant genetic variation of the H. pratti
population. 3) H. pratti in the region experienced a bottleneck effect.
We found that the three caves where H. pratti are currently distributed
face varying degrees of human interference and the populations are
threatened. Management strategies, including appropriate countermeasures
to reduce human interference in caves, are urgently needed.