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The origin and genetic variability of the Czech sika deer population

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Ecological Research

Abstract

Sika deer (Cervus nippon), native to Asia, formed two well-established free-living populations in the Czech Republic over the last century and continue to spread. Sika are also maintained in a large number of enclosures; these continue to introduce new individuals from the places of its origin as well as from other European countries. Despite extensive research into the morphology and ethology of the Czech sika deer, conducted over the last three decades, no study using genetic methods has been done. This study aimed to determine the genetic variability and the geographic origin of the Czech sika deer population. Two mitochondrial markers, the cytochrome b and the control region were analyzed in this study. Analysis of the two markers confirmed that the founder individuals of the Czech population originated from both native island (Japanese Islands) and native mainland (Far East Russia) populations. Results showed that the genetic variability of the Czech sika deer population is lower than the variability of the native Japanese population, but higher than that of the sampled part of the native Russian population. Also, the genetic variability was found to be higher within the samples from enclosures.

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Acknowledgments

We thank H. Pimenova and S. Bondarchuk from the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, the hunters from the Primorsky District and the Terneysky District, M. Asada from the Chiba Biodiversity Centre, and the hunters from the Czech Republic for collection of the samples. We thank our colleague P. Vallo for his laboratory help at the beginning of the study. We also thank both reviewers for their suggestions and comments on previous versions of this paper. This study was financially supported by Grant No. 524/09/1569 from the Czech Science Foundation and by institutional support RVO:68081766.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Květná 8, Brno, 603 65, Czech Republic

    M. Barančeková, J. Krojerová-Prokešová & P. Koubek

  2. Lazovsky State Nature Reserve, Centralnaya St. 56, Lazo, Primorsky Krai, 692980, Russia

    I. V. Voloshina & A. I. Myslenkov

  3. Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, 080-8555, Japan

    Y. Kawata & T. Oshida

  4. Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University Prague, 500 05, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

    J. Lamka

  5. Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 1176, 165 21, Prague 6, Suchdol, Czech Republic

    P. Koubek

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  1. M. Barančeková
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  2. J. Krojerová-Prokešová
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  3. I. V. Voloshina
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  4. A. I. Myslenkov
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Correspondence to M. Barančeková.

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Barančeková, M., Krojerová-Prokešová, J., Voloshina, I.V. et al. The origin and genetic variability of the Czech sika deer population. Ecol Res 27, 991–1003 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-012-0992-y

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