Background: Himalayan goral (Naemorhedus goral), solitary cliff-dwelling species and are distributed throughout the Indian Himalayan region. Its populations across the range are facing severe threats due to habitat loss, fragmentation and changes in the land-use patterns by various anthropogenic activities.
Methods and results: We carried out genetic analyses of Himalayan goral using the mitochondrial control regions and microsatellite loci (n = 10) in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. We reported a moderate genetic diversity at nuclear (Ho 0.602 ± 0.057) and mitochondrial markers (Hd-0.6931 ± 0.053; π-0.0048 ± 001). Bayesian skyline plot indicates a sharp decline in the goral population in the last 100 years.
Conclusions: Our results indicate the population of Himalayan goral in Uttarkashi is under panmictic condition, plausibly due to long-ranging behaviour. The present study laid the foundation for future non-invasive genetics monitoring and detailed population genetic assessment of goral from the entire range in the Western Himalayas.
Keywords: Himalayan goral; Non-invasive genetics; STRS; Western Himalaya; mt-DNA.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.