By Jean Hugues Gardenne | Fund raising & Communications Manager
September 2022 update
It appears that the reptile populations had undergone a decline following the Wakashio oil spill, but we need more long term data to be able to determine the severity (it is how the modelling works, as the more data you collect the more accurate the previous results become).
We now have the pre oil spill and post oil spill genetic samples of the reptiles over to Cardiff University. One very interesting and preliminary result shows that the lesser night gecko populations in the SE are coming out as a separate genetic cluster, which emphasises the need to have established a captive assurance population.
Dr Nik Cole, Island Restoration Manager further reported: ‘Further genetic work over the next few months will determine two things: 1. Did we manage to collect a representative sample of the population genetics when we conducted the emergency rescue to establish the captive population; 2. Has there been a loss of genetic variance within the reptile populations on the islands given the preliminary evidence that the populations underwent a decline.'
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