Developmental stability of the golden Jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus geoffrey 1835) populations in southeastern Europe

Abstract

© 2018, Academic Publishing House. All rights reserved. The intensive establishment of new populations of the European golden jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus Geoffrey 1835) in the Southeastern part of Europe, motivated us to explore the population levels of developmental stability of this species. The population levels were assessed through the fluctuating asymmetry determined as minor non-directional deviations from bilateral symmetry in 10morphologicalnon-metric skull characters. Developmental stability was estimated in three populations inhabiting Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, following the direction of the presumptive movement of the golden jackal from the Balkans towards the Southeastern part of Central Europe. Looking at the fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator of environmental as well as genetic stress, there is no evidence of genetic depression by reproductive isolation in the studied populations. Moreover, there is no indication of relatively reduced developmental stability in any of the analyzed populations.