Due to specific habitat preferences and behavioural limitations, black francolin is not uniformly distributed across the northwestern Himalayan landscape, rather is confined to certain land mosaic. The habitable zones are further reduced due to several manmade threats as logging and forest fire leading to sparse distribution. Overall 54 samples were used for partial sequence analysis of mitochondrial control region. A well evident divergence pattern was observed as individuals collected from low altitude, terrai region significantly distanced from high altitude sampled individuals. Also, the individuals at lower elevation sites exhibited higher genetic diversity in comparison to the samples collected at higher elevations. This indicates that patchy distribution and low dispersal rate have resulted in fine-scale patterns of genetic diversity among the black francolin population. Further, habitat loss and forest fragmentation could lead to more small and isolated populations that could suffer from reduced genetic diversity and may be higher extinction rates.

中文翻译：

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基于线粒体控制区的喜马拉雅西北部地区的黑色弗兰克林（Francolinus francolinus asiae）的空间遗传结构。

由于特定的栖息地偏好和行为限制，黑色francolin并非均匀分布在喜马拉雅西北部的整个景观中，而是局限于某些土地上。由于一些人为的威胁，例如伐木和森林火灾导致分布稀疏，可居住区域进一步减少。总共54个样品用于线粒体控制区的部分序列分析。当从低海拔，地形区域收集的个体与高海拔采样的个体有明显距离时，观察到很好的明显发散模式。而且，与在较高海拔处收集的样品相比，海拔较低处的个体表现出较高的遗传多样性。这表明斑块状分布和低散布率已导致黑色francolin人群中遗传多样性的精细模式。此外，生境的丧失和森林破碎化可能导致更多的小而孤立的种群，这些种群可能遭受遗传多样性减少的影响，并且灭绝率可能更高。