Evidences of a northward expansion of the southern carnivore: genetic identification of the golden jackal Canis aureus L. from the Central Non-Black Earth region and dynamics of its range in the historical period

The article presents the results of molecular genetic identification of two individuals of the golden jackal, Canis aureus Linnaeus 1758 (Carnivora, Mammalia), hunted in the Vladimir region of Russia. The initial morphological diagnosis was confirmed both by the maternal (sequenced fragment of the mtDNA cytochrome b gene) and paternal (fragment analysis of amplicons of the ZfY gene localized on the Y chromosome) lineages. Both individuals were identified as golden jackals, the sequences of which correspond to the European-Middle Eastern lineage of C. aureus. The presented data confirm new records of the golden jackal outside the stable part of the historical range of the species - in the north of the front of its dispersal in the Central Non-Black Earth Region. We analyze these facts in the context of the expansion of the golden jackal range to the central and northern parts of the Russian Plain.