Evidence of Northward Expansion of a Southern Carnivore: Genetic Identification of the Golden Jackal Canis aureus L. from the Central Non-Black Earth Region and the Dynamics of Its Range in the Historical Period

The results of molecular genetic identification of two individuals of the golden jackal, Canis aureus Linnaeus 1758 (Carnivora, Mammalia), hunted in Vladimir oblast of Russia are presented. The initial morphological diagnosis was confirmed by both 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 data presented confirm new records of the golden jackal outside the stable part of the historical range of the species—in the northern part of the front of its dispersal in the Central Non-Black Earth Region. These facts are analyzed in the context of the expansion of the golden jackal range to the central and northern parts of the Russian Plain.