Genetic diversity and the implications of captive rearing for a small population of Black‐tailed Godwits

Headstarting is a captive rearing intervention where eggs are taken from the wild, artificially incubated and chicks are reared in captivity to fledging before being released into the wild. From an imperiled Black-tailed Godwit population in the UK, clutches have been collected for headstarting. While this conservation measure has reduced local extinction risk, it may have impacts on genetic diversity and population viability, especially when wild-sourced eggs must be collected from a small population. Here, we compare genetic diversity and relatedness of the UK population of 42 pairs with the much larger breeding population in the Netherlands (~30,000 pairs). We found that levels of heterozygosity and inbreeding are not currently compromised, but allelic richness in the UK population was 8.5% lower than in the Dutch population, and relatedness estimates suggest that 6.1% of the individuals in the UK population are closely related, at the level of half sibling and up, compared to 1.9% i..., Standard genotying at multiple microsatellite loci., , # Genetic diversity and the implications of captive rearing for a small population of Black-tailed Godwits

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nvx0k6f37](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nvx0k6f37)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### Description of dataset

This dataset was generated to compare genetic diversity and relatedness of the UK breeding population of black-tailed godwits (42 pairs) with the much larger breeding population in the Netherlands (~30,000\_ pairs).

Individuals were genotyped at 9 loci microsatellite loci. The UK dataset consisted of 59 individuals, the Netherlands dataset of 38 individuals.

##### METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

###### Description of methods used for collection/generation of data:

Sampling: Individual eggshell and its membrane were air dried. Of 9 chicks that died of naturla causes, a leg was removed and stored in ethanol

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DNA extraction: salt extraction protocol modified from Richardson et al. (2001)

PCR: microsatellite loci were ampli...,