A Comparison of the Intestinal Fungal Community in Wild and Captive Himalayan Vultures (Gyps himalayensis)

Abstract In this study, we systematically analyzed the ecological response mechanism of the intestinal fungal community of the endangered species, the Himalayan vultures ( Gyps himalayensis ), concerning the survival differences between wild and captive environments. Based on its high-throughput sequencing technology, the key features such as species composition analysis, α/β diversity assessment, principal coordinate analysis, and correlation network analysis revealed that the captive environment led to the complexity of the fungal community structure, the turnover of the core flora, and the increase in the complexity of the intergeneric interactions network. It was further shown by FUNGuild functional annotation that the relative abundance of undefined saprotroph functional taxa in the wild population was significantly higher than that in the captive population, corroborating the adaptive advantage of its intestinal fungal community to the scavenging ecological niche. This study reveals for the first time the potential effects of captive stress on Himalayan vultures from the perspective of gut fungi, providing key microbiomic evidence for optimizing the conservation strategy of endangered raptors, and at the same time expanding the functional cognitive system of gut fungi in highland carrion-feeding birds.