Divergence and serial colonization shape genetic variation and define conservation units in Asian elephants

= 0.25 ± 0.09 and 0.17 ± 0.02). Analyses of genetic load reveal the purging of potentially high-effect insertion/deletion (indel) deleterious alleles in the southern populations and a decreasing number of deleterious alleles from north to south in India. However, despite dilution and purging for the damaging mutation load in Southern India, the load that remains is homozygous. High homozygosity of deleterious alleles, coupled with low neutral genetic diversity, make southernmost populations high priority for conservation attention. Most surprisingly, our study suggests that patterns of genetic diversity and genetic load can correspond to genomic signatures of serial founding events, even in large, highly mobile, endangered mammals.