Preliminary communication
Morphological Variability of the Croatian Wild Boar Population
Nikica Šprem
orcid.org/0000-0002-3475-6653
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
Marina Piria
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
Hrvoje Novosel
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
Tihomir Florijančić
; University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Faculty of Agriculture
Boris Antunović
; University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Faculty of Agriculture
Tomislav Treer
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
Abstract
Between 2007 and 2009, a total of 181 individual wild boar were scored using nineteen morphological measurements from three geographical regions to describe morphological variety of the population throughout Croatia. In some regions we found phenotypical variability of the wild boar population based on hybridization The results of ANOVA show that some variables were significantly different (body weight, tail length, trunk length) but some of them were not homogenous for all age classes (circumference of shin, the most caudal point of scapula, circumference at chest) and were unable to highlight differences among the areas. The redundancy analysis (RDA) showed a connection of sampling sites with some morphological trait. Results of cluster analysis using TREE procedure indicate separation on the two subpopulations and suggesting the existence of morphological differences. Overall the results confirmed that different morphotypes of wild boar are detectable in some different areas of Croatia, and in some counties the wild boar population has been hybridized with domestic pigs, which result in phenotypical variability where the wild characteristics predominate. These results confirmed the need for population genetic studies to identify the different subpopulations of wild boar presently found in Croatia
Keywords
Croatia; morphological variability; wild boar
Hrčak ID:
75468
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2011.
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