The Results of Sable (Martes zibellina) Reintroduction Demonstrate the Founder Effect.

The relative abundance of intrapopulation groups with different parameters of skull size, coat color, and expression of an epigenetic cranial trait was compared in autochthonous, reintroduced, and donor populations of sable. Recovery of the species resources and broad variability of the phenotypic trait complex in the newly fomned populations were observed. A large proportion of the animals had the phenotype that included large size, dark coat color, and pronounced expression of a specific phene trait (foramen in the condylar fossa) and was not characteristic of the neighboring autochthonous populations. It is reasonable to attribute the presence of individuals with an unusual morphology in the newly formed populations of animals to a manifestation of the founder principle, because the effect of this principle was promoted by spatial isolation of the primary foci of translocated animals.

Special morphological features of sables in introduced populations.

The morphological characteristics of sables have been studied in indigenous populations and in the populations created by introductions in the 1950s.

[Size structure of the sable in the Lake Baikal Region: a decadal analysis over the last sixty years].

The skull sizes of eight Lake Baikal sable populations (n = 1859) were studied. It was noted that six of them constitute a homogeneous group of the small forms of the species. The decadal dynamics of 17 craniometric characters was analyzed. An increase in the skull size in the second half of the 20th century, common for both males and females, was revealed. The average growth trend over a decade was determined for the condylobasal skull length;-it amounted to 0.15 mm in males and 0.11 mm in females. It was established that decadal deviations in sizes are, in most cases, not significant statistically; they are of an oppositely directed nature and do not disturb the species stability.

[Age changes in the sexual size dimorphism in sables in nature and captivity].

Inter-sexual differences in craniometric parameters were studied in sables of varying sex and age in natural (n = 2338) and farm (n = 516) populations. In nature, the differences between the skull size in males and females are, as a rule, high (p < 0.001) and the size dynamics correlate well with age. In the cell population, the difference in the skull size between the sexes is statistically significant (p < 0.01), but the correlation of sizes with age is absent. In natural populations, parameters of sexual dimorphism (SD) correlate positively with age, with a maximum correlation found in the animals aged nine and a minimum found in yearlings. The index of sexual dimorphism grows considerably until three years of age, after which the dynamics resemble a cyclical process with a repetition of maximum values each fourth year with a general trend of growth in the parameter. The highest values of SD in cell sables are registered at 3-5 years of age, while the minimum ones are noted in the age groups of 6-9 and 13-14 years of age. In nature, yearlings aged 6-10 months are characterized by a tendency to general growth (which is not manifested in the introduced population from the basin of the Vakh River) and increase in the SD index with age. The Vakh population is characterized by a decrease in the SD index. The specific rate of skull growth in males is 1.8-fold higher than in females. The age dynamics of the sizes and the vectors of rates between the sexes are not in accordance, as a rule. The results of our study correspond to the theory by Geodakyan (1991) about dichronomorphism. In our opinion, the differences in age manifestations of sexual dimorphism and postnatal skull growth in natural and farm sable populations are determined by the different directions of selection.

[Is sexual dimorphism variable? Data on species of the genus Martes in the Urals].

Sexual dimorphism in cranial measurements was studied in Ural populations of two species of the genus Martes, M. martes and M. zibellina. The index of sexual dimorphism averaged 8.39% in the former and 9.03% in the latter, being subject to geographic variation. For the first time, temporal variability of sexual dimorphism in dimensional characters was revealed in mammals by analyzing M. zibellina samples collected in different decades of the second half of the 20th century. The majority of corresponding microtrends had reciprocating dynamics.

[Fenetic analysis of aboriginal and introduced sable (Martes zibellina) populations in Russia]. / Feneticheskii analiz aborigennykh i introdutsirovannykh populiatsii sobolia (Martes zibellina) rossii.

Using standard and mulivariate statistic methods, an epigenetic character--foramina in fossa condyloidei inferior, FFCI--was studied in sable populations. This character was shown to be most frequent in southeastern populations of the species (Primorye and the Baikal region) while its distribution in the remaining part of the range was polyclinal. The expression of FFCI was directly associated with coat color and longitude, and inversely associated with skull size. This trend was broken by some western populations formed in the 1950s by introduction, which exhibited stable morphological differences with adjacent aboriginal sable populations. Most populations of the species exhibit differences in the manifestation of the character. Frequency of the FFCI manifestation can be used as an additional population characteristic, an associative diagnostic character that shows high discriminating capability in detecting phenogenetic relationships of intraspecific groups.