Genetic diversity in Siberian flying squirrel ( Pteromys volans ) in its western frontier with a focus on the Estonian p
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Genetic diversity in Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) in its western frontier with a focus on the Estonian population Grete Nummert 1 & Anu Aaspõllu 1 & Kristiina Kuningas 1 & Uudo Timm 1 & Ilpo K. Hanski 1 & Tiit Maran 1 Received: 17 June 2019 / Accepted: 18 May 2020 # Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża, Poland 2020
Abstract The Siberian flying squirrel population is experiencing a continuous decline in Estonia and Finland. Hence, the flying squirrel is listed in Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitat directive and is regarded as a priority species for protection by the European Community. So far, only a limited number of genetic studies have been conducted on this species—all using invasively collected tissue samples and most focusing on the Finnish population only. Our aim was to describe the genetic diversity of the Estonian flying squirrel population and its relatedness to the nearest populations from Finland and Karelia by using, for the first time, noninvasively collected faecal samples. Based on mitochondrial markers’ analysis, the Estonian population appeared more homogenous in comparison with the other two populations. Mitochondrial markers did not reveal essential genetic dissimilarities between Estonian, Finnish, and Karelian populations as they all shared the same mitochondrial haplotypes. Combined data from both mitochondrial and microsatellite markers indicated that the flying squirrel population in Estonia is genetically less diverse compared with the other populations. Finally, signs of inbreeding and heterozygote deficiency were detected in the Estonian flying squirrel population. Keywords Pteromys volans . Genetic diversity . mtDNA markers . Microsatellite markers . Faecal samples
Introduction The Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans, L. 1758) belongs to the family Sciuridae and occupies a wide area in temperate Eurasia, ranging from Finland and Estonia, throughout Russia to Hokkaido Island (Japan) (IUCN 2016). Because of its wide range, this species is listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, local decline in the most western part of its range has led the flying squirrel to be listed in Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitat Directive; consequently, it is regarded as a priority species for the European
Communicated by: Magdalena Niedziałkowska Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00509-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Grete Nummert [email protected] 1
Species Conservation Research Center, Tallinn Zoo, Ehitajate tee 150, 13522 Tallinn, Estonia
Community (Council of the European Union 1992; IUCN 2016). In addition, the species is considered to be threatened in Finland, where is listed under vulnerable (VU) by the Red List of Finnish species (Hyvärinen et al. 2019). In Estonia, the flying squirrel is highly endangered and thus protected as such by law. One of the
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