16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 © 2015 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/ Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Noninvasive genetics provides insights into the population size and genetic diversity of an Amur tiger population in China Dan WANG, 1,2 Yibo HU, 1 Tianxiao MA, 1,2 Yonggang NIE, 1 Yan XIE 1 and Fuwen WEI 1 1 Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China and 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Abstract Understanding population size and genetic diversity is critical for efective conservation of endangered species. The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is the largest felid and a fagship species for wildlife conservation. Due to habitat loss and human activities, available habitat and population size are continuously shrinking. However, little is known about the true population size and genetic diversity of wild tiger populations in China. In this study, we collected 55 fecal samples and 1 hair sample to investigate the population size and genetic diversity of wild Amur tigers in Hunchun National Nature Reserve, Jilin Province, China. From the samples, we determined that 23 fecal samples and 1 hair sample were from 7 Amur tigers: 2 males, 4 females and 1 individual of unknown sex. Interestingly, 2 fecal samples that were presumed to be from tigers were from Amur leopards, highlighting the signifcant advantages of noninvasive genetics over traditional methods in studying rare and elusive animals. Analyses from this sample suggested that the genetic diversity of wild Amur tigers is much lower than that of Bengal tigers, consistent with previous fndings. Furthermore, the genetic diversity of this Hunchun population in China was lower than that of the adjoining subpopulation in southwest Primorye Russia, likely due to sampling bias. Considering the small population size and relatively low genetic diversity, it is urgent to protect this endangered local subpopulation in China. Key words: felid, genetic diversity, noninvasive genetics, Panthera tigris altaica, population size Integrative Zoology 2016; 11: 16–24 doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12176 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Correspondence: Yibo Hu, Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, #1-5 Beichen West Road, Beijing 100101, China. Email: ybhu@ioz.ac.cn INTRODUCTION Accurate estimation of population size is a critical component of conserving endangered species as population size provides a metric for determining the success of conservation strategies, informs the process of allocating resources, and helps determine conservation priorities (Zhan et al . 2006; Wei et al . 2012). However, due to small population sizes and the concerns associated with handling protected species, it is difcult to accurately estimate the population size of