Kinmen County’s Eurasian otters, which are endangered, have enough genomic diversity to remain a healthy species, and the introduction of foreign otters is unnecessary for now, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said on Thursday.
Once the most widespread apex predator of freshwater habitats in Europe and Asia, the Eurasian otter’s population has dwindled due to the effects of human activity and habitat loss since the 1950s, the agency said.
As a result of the fragmentation of their habitats, the Eurasian otter has branched into three subgroups with distinct genetic and physiological traits, such as those in the population in Kinmen, it said.
Photo courtesy of Kinmen County Government
Although some experts have raised concerns that the population of otters in Kinmen was too small to be genetically viable, a recent study commissioned by the agency has shown that to not be the case, it said.
The study, coauthored by National Taiwan Normal University life science professor Li Shou-Hsien (李壽先), was last month published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.
Although Kinmen’s otter population is small, it displays the most genetic diversity of the three subgroups and represents a geographically and genomically separate unit, the agency said, citing the study.
That means conservation efforts directed at the otters on the islands have to be managed apart from other subgroups to preserve their uniqueness, precluding the use of exogenous otters to bolster their numbers, the agency said.
Additionally, the genomic diversity of the Kinmen otters implies that the population might not be as insular as previously assumed, and that limited interbreeding with outside groups could somehow be taking place, it said.
The agency is carrying out a conservation action plan drafted last year, focusing on addressing habitat loss, deaths by vehicles and dogs, medical care, captive breeding and research, it said.
The study would be utilized to guide the plan’s implementation, it said.
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