New paper on goose phylogeography and conservation: In this paper, visiting researcher Cecilia Kopuchian (Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral, Argentina) and Leo Campagna from our lab use genomic data to explore the history of colonization of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands by the Upland Goose (Chloephaga picta) and the Ruddy-headed Goose (C. rubidiceps). They found that each insular population is widely divergent from those on the South American continent, despite the fact that these islands are only about 450 km away from mainland Patagonia, which is not particularly far as the goose flies. While these goose populations have undergone drastic declines on the continent, those on the islands show the opposite trend of increasing numbers; their strong status on this islands has been cited as one justification for not taking broader action to conserve the declining mainland populations. By demonstrating that the insular and continental populations are so clearly divergent, these new results help justify increased conservation attention to the declining mainland populations and in particular they highlight the risk of extinction of the continental form of the Ruddy-headed Goose
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