Genetic Differentiation Of The Golden Jackal (Canis Aureus) Populations In Southern Hungary And Southern Romania As Revealed By Microsatellite Data Analysis

The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a widespread opportunistic mid-sized canid, distributed throughout southern Asia, the Middle East and South-eastern and Central Europe. European populations have undergone significant population changes in recent decades. During the first two decades of the 21st century the size of the jackal populations increased in their distribution and abundance across Europe. Hungary and Romania apply similar game management practices, and the golden jackal appeared approximately at the same time in both countries. With the aim to determine the genetic structure and the origin of the expanding jackal populations, we analysed samples obtained from Romania and Hungary. Genotyped at 22 canine autosomal microsatellite loci (STR), samples were analysed using multivariate, Bayesian and landscape genetic methods. In the Romanian samples all loci were polymorphic with 3-12 alleles. The overall observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosities were 0.552 and 0.647, respectively. In the Hungarian samples 20 out of 22 loci were polymorphic with 2-11 alleles. The overall observed (Ho) heterozygosity (0.561) was higher and the expected (He) heterozygosity (0.564) was lower than the corresponding Romanian value. Based on our clustering results, Romanian and Hungarian samples were separated into two different genetic clusters. These results show that smaller groups of golden jackals could become established in different regions following several episodes of colonization, possibly at different times and arriving from various locations.