DOI: 10.5061/dryad.d4m07
title: Data from: New evidence for hybrid zones of forest and savanna elephants in Central and West Africa

description: The African elephant consists of forest and savanna subspecies. Both
 subspecies are highly endangered due to severe poaching and habitat loss,
 and knowledge of their population structure is vital to their
 conservation. Previous studies have demonstrated marked genetic and
 morphological differences between forest and savanna elephants and despite
 extensive sampling, genetic evidence of hybridization between them has
 been restricted largely to a few hybrids in the Garamba region of
 northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Here we present new
 genetic data on hybridization from previously unsampled areas of Africa.
 Novel statistical methods applied to these data identify 46 hybrid samples
 - many more than have been previously identified - only two of which are
 from the Garamba region. The remaining 44 are from three other
 geographically-distinct locations: a major hybrid zone along the border of
 the DRC and Uganda, a second potential hybrid zone in Central African
 Republic, and a smaller fraction of hybrids in the Pendjari-Arli complex
 of West Africa. Most of the hybrids show evidence of interbreeding over
 more than one generation, demonstrating that hybrids are fertile.
 Mitochondrial and Y chromosome data demonstrate that the hybridization is
 bidirectional, involving males and females from both subspecies. We
 hypothesize that the hybrid zones may have been facilitated by poaching
 and habitat modification. The localized geography and rarity of hybrid
 zones, their possible facilitation from human pressures, and the high
 divergence and genetic distinctness of forest and savanna elephants
 throughout their ranges, are consistent with calls for separate species
 classification.
description: 1369hybridprob+structureGlobal hybrid analysis giving hybrid probabilities and structure ancestry1295structureresultsStructure results used to determine groupings for parameter estimationsZoomin1hybridprob+structureResults of zoom-in hybrid probabilities and structure ancestry for DRC-Uganda region (Box C, Fig 1)Zoomin2hybridprob+structureResults of zoom-in hybrid probabilities and structure ancestry for western portion of Central Africa region (Box D, Fig 1)1395genotypes_updatedGenotypes of all samples used in analyses, along with location codes and sample typesregionfileLatitude and longitude for each location code, accompanies genotype fileMondol et al. 2015- Elephant mtDNA dataSequence alignment file with 526 bp mitochondrial partial control region sequences of both forest, savanna and hybrid elephants. This file contains sequences of pure reference African forest and savanna elephants and Asian elephants from Genbank, along with sequences generated through this study from pure (forest and savanna) and hybrid elephants. Total 125 sequences are aligned in this file.Mondol et al. 2015- Elephant Y-Chromosome dataSequence alignment file with 719 bp Y Chromosome partial sequences of both forest, savanna and hybrid elephants. This file contains sequences of pure reference African forest and savanna elephants and Asian elephants from Genbank, along with sequences generated through this study from pure (forest and savanna) and hybrid elephants. Total 91 sequences are aligned in this file.