It is neat that you collected whole genome data to develop your microsatellite primers, since you can put those data to additional uses. I am curious if you tried any of the other microsatellite DNA primers that have been developed for Athene cunicularia (Korfanta et al., 2002; Faircloth et al., 2010; Macías-Duarte et al., 2010).

Even though there is a low likelihood that these other loci overlap with your markers, since so many have been developed, it would probably be a good idea to search for the previously published Athene cunicularia primer sequences in your marker sequences to make sure that they do not overlap. I wish you all the best with your project.

References Faircloth BC., Title A., Tan K., Welty J., Belthoff JR., Gowaty PA. 2010. Eighteen microsatellite loci developed from western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea). Conservation Genetics Resources 2:167–171. DOI: 10.1007/s12686-010-9214-5. Korfanta NM., Schable NA., Glenn TC. 2002. Isolation and characterization of microsatellite DNA primers in burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia). Molecular Ecology Notes 2:584–585. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8286.2002.00326.x. Macías-Duarte A., Conway CJ., Munguia-Vega A., Culver M. 2010. Novel microsatellite loci for the burrowing owl Athene cunicularia. Conservation Genetics Resources 2:67–69. DOI: 10.1007/s12686-009-9150-4.