File:Cervus Elaphus.jpg

Ελληνικά: The red deer Cervus elaphus is one of the most widespread large mammals in Europe, and worldwide. As perhaps one of the most important game species, it has been undergoing anthropogenic pressure for centuries, or even millennia. In Greece the red deer was quite widespread in the past, almost in the entire mainland. Today the only viable populations are in Rodope and mount Parnitha, with the latter the most flourishing population in the country. The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic diversity of Parnitha’s deer, to verify its biological origin, to analyze the population’s genetic structure and correlate it with ecological parameters. Since Parnitha’s National Park is a protected area, non invasive methods were used for sample collection. Total DNA was extracted mainly from drooped horns or in a few cases from tissue or blood of dead animals. In this work, we sampled 55 samples from wild population of Parnitha and analyzed them with another 39 from previous work. There were also 3 samples from Rodope mountain and another 3 from Bulgaria. For a total of 94 samples there was spatial information for 69 of them (found in 19 sampling areas), from which data about the altitude, aspect and land-use were exported.PCR amplification was performed for mtDNA Dloop region and 14 microsatellite loci were analyzed. The results indicated that Parnitha’s red deer has Balkan phylogenetic origins. The population shows a high degree of genetic diversity and it doesn’t seem to suffer from inbreeding and genetic depression, while microsatellite heterozygosity values and the mitochondrial nucleotide and haplotype diversity are quite high, compared with other European populations. The effective population size was calculated with 2 methods, at 55 and 69 individuals respectively, indicating a viable but not very stable, in time population. The population is subdivided in two or three genetic clusters. Altitude, aspect, geographic distance and land-use do not seem to be limiting factors in gene flow between the clusters. More detailed spatial data must be verified and more ecological factors must be analyzed.