DIGITALNA ARHIVA ŠUMARSKOG LISTA
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| ŠUMARSKI LIST 11-12/2013 str. 33 <-- 33 --> PDF |
GENETIC EVIDENCE ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CURRENT BEAVER (Castor fiber) POPULATION IN LOWER AUSTRIA Genetički dokazi o porijeklu današnje populacije europskog dabra (Castor fiber) u Donjoj Austriji Matthias KROPF, Gerald HÖLZLER, Rosemarie PARZ-GOLLNER Summary Beside European beavers (Castor fiber) from Poland, Belarus and Sweden also individuals of C. canadensis have been released to the Austrian Danube watershed east of Vienna during the years 1976 and 1990. Based on reintroduction activities the Lower Austrian beaver population developed well to a current size of more than 3000 individuals. However, it remains ambiguous, which of the originally released animals account for this success. Here, we present mitochondrial (mt) DNA data to answer the questions whether C. canadensis is still traceable in Lower Austria and which intraspecific lineages of C. fiber are currently present? Our Maximum Likelihood (ML) analysis based on 81 newly generated DNA sequences from the mitochondrial control region plus 30 reference beaver samples from the literature, revealed no evidence for the existence of C. canadensis in Lower Austria. With respect to C. fiber, three different intraspecific lineages (mainly corresponding to different subspecies) were identified. While the majority of samples represent either Scandinavian (subsp. fiber) or Central European beavers (likely C. f. albicus x belorussicus/orientoeuropaeus), one sample of C. f. pohlei was rather genetically distinct and unexpected from the documented reintroduction history. In addition, possible hybridisation among intraspecific beaver lineages is discussed, although the maternally inherited mtDNA analysed here did not give the ultimate answer to this question. KEY WORDS: Castor fiber, Danube, Lower Austria, mitochondrial control region, reintroduction Introduction Uvod The European beaver (Castor fiber L., 1758) was exterminated in the 1860s in Austria (Sieber & Bauer 2001). In Lower Austria the last beaver was shot 1863 in the Danube floodplain area east of Vienna near Fischamend. During the years 1976 to 1990, European beavers from Poland, Belarus and Sweden (Sieber & Bauer 2001), probably representing different subspecies (see Ducroz et al. 2005; Durka et al. 2005; Horn et al. 2011), have been released into the Austrian Danube watershed east of Vienna. Furthermore, also few individuals of C. canadensis have been introduced during that time. While the number of released C. fiber individuals was higher than 40, based on the available sources (i.e. Lutschinger 1988; Sieber 1999; Sieber & Bauer 2001) the number of C. canadensis individuals was close to twelve. None of the data published so far gives evidence of |