Γενετική ποικιλότητα και στοιχεία οικολογίας των πληθυσμών του ζαρκαδιού (Capreolus capreolus) στην Ελλάδα

• Main Authors: Tsaparis, Dimitris, Τσαπάρης, Δημήτριος
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Greek
• Published: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens 2011
• Subjects: Ζαρκάδι; Γενετική ποικιλότητα; Εκτίμηση αφθονίας; Διαχείριση; Φυλογεωγραφία; Οπληφόρο; Θηλαστικά; Ελλάδα; Roe deer; Genetic diversity; Abidance estimation; Management; Phylogeography; Ungulate; Mammals; Greece; Natural Sciences; Biological Sciences; Φυσικές Επιστήμες; Βιολογία; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10442/hedi/28125; https://doi.org/10.12681/eadd/28125

The European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758), a small-sized species of the Cervidae family, is distributed throughout the whole of Europe with the exception of Iceland, Ireland and the Mediterranean islands. It is reported to be the most abundant species among the wild ungulates in this region, with an estimated overall population size of over 15 millions. Although roe deer are supposed to be mainly forest inhabitants, they can colonize a great variety of other habitats as well. This adaptive plasticity and their tolerance of climatic extremes explain their extensive and successful distribution. Greek populations, unlike many others, display very low densities and are present mainly in mountainous woodland areas with low levels of human disturbance. Roe deer hunting has been banned in Greece since the late ‘60s, as an emergency measure of protection. However, poaching and degradation of forest habitats due to anthropogenic interventions continue to constitute important threats, which put in question the long term survival of roe deer. According to the Red Book of Threatened Animals of Greece the species is characterized as Vulnerable. The scientific investigation of Greek roe deer was until now exceptionally fragmentary and limited. The lack of basic knowledge and scientific documentation on subjects that are related to the ecology and conservation of roe deer in Greece does not allow the development of targeted management projects. The basic goal of this thesis was the contribution of new, important data and methodological tools, to the future development and implementation of conservation and management projects for roe deer in Greece. The study focused on two major axes: a) the investigation of Greek roe deer genetic diversity and b) the evaluation of the potential use of indirect methods for estimating density and abundance in order to monitor fluctuations of roe deer populations. Genetic diversity loss is one of the major threats for the survival of natural populations. The conservation of ...