Conservation rescued the Mauritius kestrel from extinction but not from genomic erosion
Conservation can prevent species extinction via demographic recovery, yet it remains debated whether this translates into genomic recovery and restored fitness. The Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus) declined to four known wild birds in 1974 before intensive management recovered the population. Using 130 genomes spanning nearly 200 years, lifetime reproductive success data, and simulations, we reconstructed genomic change across the species collapse and recovery. Long-term small population size had already removed some harmful variation before the crash, a process expected to buffer populations from severe inbreeding depression. Yet the recent bottleneck sharply increased inbreeding, exposed additional harmful variants, and left a signature of genomic erosion associated with reduced reproductive success. The long conservation history of the Mauritius kestrel shows how population collapse and recovery can leave a compounding genetic threat, in which partial genetic purging, continuing genomic erosion, and conservation dependence unfold together in rescued species.