Home Page
» Online Library » Contact Zone of European (Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758) and Asian (M. leucurus Hodgson, 1847) Badgers (Mustelidae, Mammalia) in the Right- and Left-Bank Districts of the Saratov Region
Contact Zone of European (Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758) and Asian (M. leucurus Hodgson, 1847) Badgers (Mustelidae, Mammalia) in the Right- and Left-Bank Districts of the Saratov Region
| Theme: | Biology |
Downloading for authorized users
|
| Author: | Титов Сергей Витальевич , | |
| Annotation: | The DNA studies of badgers (Meles sp.) from the right-bank and left-bank areas of the Volga River in the Saratov region are described. Asian badgers (Meles leucurus Hodgson, 1847) inhabit the Left Bank of the Volga River in the Saratov region, while European badgers (M. meles Linnaeus, 1758) inhabit the Volga Right-Bank districts of the region; however, Asian badgers have been found in Khvalynsky district of the Saratov Region in addition to the European badger. Despite the sufficient number of publications devoted to the Asiatic badger distribution in the Vyatka–Kama region and the Volga region and the studies devoted to the development of systematics of the genus Meles in Russia, the question of the boundaries of the ranges of European and Asiatic badgers and the zones of their sympatry (parapatry) in the Volga–Kama region has not been fully investigated to date. Our work is devoted to the study of this question. The analysis of biological material that we have collected has shown that all five of the studied badger individuals from the Saratov Volga region phenotypically look like Asian badgers; however, DNA analysis showed that only two of them were M. leucurus and other three were heterozygous individuals carrying genes from both species and were identified as hybrids. The remaining 29 individuals were captured in the right-bank areas of the region. Samples were taken from badger individuals from the northern to southern borders of the region in the areas located along the Volga River on the Volga Upland and in the Oka–Don Plain. Among them, one individual from Khvalynsky district turned out to be an Asian badger, one individual from Krasnoarmeysky district was a hybrid of these two species, and three individuals, one from Tatishchevsky, the second from Volsky and the third from Khvalynsky districts showed introgression of Asian badger genes into the genotype of European badger. Thus, we have managed to find out that, at this stage of the development of the climatic cycle phase in the Lower Volga Region characterized by warming winters, the Volga River, with its two reservoirs within the Saratov region, is not an absolute zoogeographical boundary and badgers whose species are characterized by winter sleep can under certain conditions overcome, most likely on ice, both the river itself and the lake parts of the Volgograd and Saratov reservoirs. According to the revealed introgression in some individuals from different areas on the Volga Upland of the right bank of the Saratov region, it can be assumed that such traveling across the Volga River took place earlier, possibly before its flow was regulated by dams. | |
| Type: | Article | |
| Kind: | Electronic copy | |
| Parts: | 1 | |
| The year of publishing: | 2024 | |
| Publishing house: | Springer | |
| Publishing place: | Biology Bulletin | |
| The target audience: | Researcher, Student | |
| Special purpose: | Scientific | |
| Copyright holder: | Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. | |
| ISSN: | 10623590, 16083059 | |
| DOI: | 10.1134/S1062359024980085 | |
| SJR: | 0.193 | |
| Bibliographic reference: | Oparin, M.L., Kartavov, N.A., Oparina, O.S. et al. Contact Zone of European (Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758) and Asian (M. leucurus Hodgson, 1847) Badgers (Mustelidae, Mammalia) in the Right- and Left-Bank Districts of the Saratov Region. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 51, 3298–3306 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359024980085 | |
| Pages: | 3298–3306 | |
| Vol: | 51 | |
| Url: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1062359024980085 | |
| Language: | English | |
| Post date: | 27.11.2025 |