TY - JOUR A1 - Lesniak, Ines A1 - Heckmann, Ilja A1 - Heitlinger, Emanuel A1 - Szentiks, Claudia Anita A1 - Nowak, Carsten A1 - Harms, Verena A1 - Jarausch, Anne A1 - Reinhardt, Ilka A1 - Kluth, Gesa A1 - Hofer, Heribert A1 - Krone, Oliver T1 - Population expansion and individual age affect endoparasite richness and diversity in a recolonising large carnivore population T2 - Scientific reports N2 - The recent recolonisation of the Central European lowland (CEL) by the grey wolf (Canis lupus) provides an excellent opportunity to study the effect of founder events on endoparasite diversity. Which role do prey and predator populations play in the re-establishment of endoparasite life cycles? Which intrinsic and extrinsic factors control individual endoparasite diversity in an expanding host population? In 53 individually known CEL wolves sampled in Germany, we revealed a community of four cestode, eight nematode, one trematode and 12 potential Sarcocystis species through molecular genetic techniques. Infections with zoonotic Echinococcus multilocularis, Trichinella britovi and T. spiralis occurred as single cases. Per capita endoparasite species richness and diversity significantly increased with population size and changed with age, whereas sex, microsatellite heterozygosity, and geographic origin had no effect. Tapeworm abundance (Taenia spp.) was significantly higher in immigrants than natives. Metacestode prevalence was slightly higher in ungulates from wolf territories than from control areas elsewhere. Even though alternative canid definitive hosts might also play a role within the investigated parasite life cycles, our findings indicate that (1) immigrated wolves increase parasite diversity in German packs, and (2) prevalence of wolf-associated parasites had declined during wolf absence and has now risen during recolonisation. KW - Biodiversity KW - Conservation biology KW - High-throughput screening KW - Parasite genetics KW - Population genetics Y1 - 2017 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47817 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-478177 SN - 2045-2322 N1 - Rights and permissions: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ VL - 7 IS - Art. 41730 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - [London] ER -