Genetic diversity in captive Yellow Cardinals (Gubernatrix cristata) from Southern Brazil: implications for the management and conservation of an endangered species

Yellow Cardinal is an Endangered Species. Its populations are in constant decline due to habitat reduction and loss and illegal capture. There are approximately 50 free-living animals in the south of Brazil (state of Rio Grande do Sul), but estimates indicate more than 1000 in captivity. Our goals were to investigate the genetic variability of captive animals in Brazil, compare it with the genetic variability found in free-living populations, estimate the kinship of captive individuals, and obtain updated data about the number of captive animals. We found only 13% of the registered captive Yellow Cardinals. Analysis of mitochondrial sequences of captive and free-living populations was performed. We obtained 14 haplotypes, one of them (H14) exclusive of captive individuals. Furthermore, we found a haplotype exclusive to the La Pampa population in a male born in captivity in 2013. The most frequent haplotype in captive animals was the same reported for northern Argentina and Uruguay populations, which border Brazil. We found a high number of alleles by locus (mean = 9.6) for microsatellite markers, with high average heterozygosity (HO = 0.605 and HE = 0.727). The global F was 0.168. Kinship analysis of captive birds indicates a degree of kinship means of 0.082. In addition, the probability of relationship indicates that 79.4% of them are unrelated. Our data demonstrated that the captive group retains a high degree of genetic diversity with a low level of kinship. Nevertheless, the presence of haplotype exclusive for Argentina’s population in captive birds, and the low level of parentage among captive animals may be representing cases of illegal wildlife trade.