Blackbucks beat odds in tough survival game, finds IISc study

A new study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has tracked the survival of blackbucks in India and set a context for future research into the species’ resilience in the face of natural and human-induced challenges.

Changes in natural landscapes, triggered by increased human activities like indiscriminate tree-cutting, have restricted animal species to smaller areas, and prevented their movement to farther regions to find new mates. Praveen Karanth, Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc, and senior author of the study which was published in Conservation Genetics, said genetic diversity is key to making the population more adaptable to changing environments.

The blackbucks, found only in the Indian subcontinent, are mainly seen in geographically separated clusters – in the country’s northern, southern, and eastern regions, the IISc said in a statement on Tuesday. “We went in with the idea that these populations might be genetically constricted, and going forward, they may be in danger of getting incurring inbreeding depression (decreased biological fitness because of inbreeding),” Ananya Jana, a former PhD student from CES and first author of the study, said.

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Karanth and Jana collected faecal samples of blackbucks from 12 locations, from eight Indian states. The researchers extracted and sequenced the DNA from the samples to study the blackbucks’ genetic makeup. Computational tools were used to map the geographic locations with the genetic data while simulations were used to trace how the three clusters may have evolved from their common ancestor.

The researchers found that an ancestral blackbuck population first split into two groups: the northern and the southern cluster. The eastern cluster, despite its proximity to the northern cluster, seemed to have emerged from the southern cluster.

The male blackbucks appeared to have defied odds and dispersed more than expected, thus contributing to gene flow in the species. Females stayed largely within native population ranges, the researchers found. The data also showed an increasing trend in the blackbuck population.

“So, (it) looks like this species has managed to survive in a human-dominated landscape,” noted Karanth. In future studies, the researchers plan to unravel the blackbucks’ secrets to surviving in the face of human-induced threats to their landscape, by studying changes in their DNA and gut microbiome, the IISc said.