| dc.description.abstract | The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla, Linnaeus 1758) is a large raptor species,
whose southernmost population is located in the Carpathian Basin. After a drastic decrease in
the early 20th century, from the 1970's the European population have started to recover. In the
1970s, the total Hungarian breeding population was estimated 10-12 pairs, all inhabiting the
South Transdanuibian region, with presumably no breeding birds in the Tiszántúl region.
Nowadays, population census of the country is more than 220 breeding pairs, with abundant
territories also nearby the Tisza river.
Phylogeography throughout the distribution range of the species was studied using the
mitochondrial DNA control region, revealing two distinct haplogroups with predominantly
eastern or western distribution. According to this, the species is suggested to have survived
the last glacial event in two main refugia, probably located in Central and Western Eurasia.
This distribution pattern was later refined with involving samples from the breeding
populations of Central Europe, describing several new haplotypes from this region. However,
phylogography and populaton structure of the population inhabiting the Carpathian Basin was
not studied until now.
In this study, we attempted (1) to reveal phylogeographic relations of the white-tailed
eagle population inhabiting the Carpathian Basin in relation to other populations in Europe,
using a mtDNA control region fragment (16 samples), and (2) to highlight origin of the
breeding population in the Tisza region. According to our two main hypothesis, eagles in this
breeding area may originate (I) from wintering birds that arrivied from the Northern European
populations and settled in the area, or (II) from dispersing birds of the breeding areas located
in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin. To answer this question, we studied genetic
structure and gene-flow between southwestern and Tisza region breeding areas using nine
nuclear microsatellite loci, involving 104 nestling from different localities of the Carpathian
Basin. As DNA source, we used plucked feathers of nestling birds,
Our results showed a high mixture of haplotypes in the Carpathian Basin, with haplotypes
that are present in Asian, North- and Central-European populations as well. Moreover, we
found no genetic differentiation between southwestern and Tisza region, suggesting that the
white-tailed eagles inhabiting the Carpathian Basin belong to one single population.
According to these results, birds breeding in the Tisza region can be originated from the
southwestern breeding areaa of the Carpathian Basin. | en |
