Population dynamics and population genetics of the Critically Endangered Raso lark: implications for conservation ...

• Main Author: Dierickx, Elisa Gwenda Godelieve
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2018
• Subjects: Raso lark; Alauda; Cape Verde; larks; Raso; RADseq; population genetics; phylogenetics; Critically Endangered; island endemic; survival; capture-recapture; MARK; population dynamics; conservation; reintroduction; translocation; skylark; Oriental lark; Alauda razae; Alauda arvensis; Alauda gulgula; genetic diversity; bottleneck; resighting; Alaudidae; crested lark; Galerida cristata; skylark genome
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.21809; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/274676

The Raso lark is a Critically Endangered bird endemic to the islet of Raso, Cape Verde. This thesis investigates two phenomena that particularly put the species at risk: its extreme fluctuations in population size, and its potentially very low genetic diversity arising from small population size and severe past population contraction. More specifically, two chapters estimate year-to-year survival and explore the factors - environmental and individual - that influence it, while two other chapters examine the lark’s genetic characteristics compared to its two continental closest relatives, including phylogenetic relationships and levels of genetic diversity. The conclusion of the thesis then uses these results to make recommendations for the conservation of the Raso lark. Each of the data chapters is summarized below: Chapter 3 estimates adult survival in the Raso lark and tests whether it could be linked to two population phenomena observed in the field: a highly variable population size and a male-biased sex ...