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not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown Grey partridge restocking; unravelling practices in North and South range edges
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  • Nikoleta Karaiskou,
  • Alex Ball,
  • Konstantinos Gkagkavouzis,
  • ARISTOTELIS MOULISTANOS,
  • Konstantinos Kalaentzis,
  • Muhammad Ghazali,
  • Styliani Minoudi,
  • David Parish,
  • Evaggelos Chatzinikos,
  • Dimitrios Kiousis,
  • Nikolaos Manios,
  • Jenny Dunn,
  • Alexandros Triantafyllidis
Nikoleta Karaiskou
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Faculty of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Alex Ball
Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
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Konstantinos Gkagkavouzis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Biology
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ARISTOTELIS MOULISTANOS
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Biology
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Konstantinos Kalaentzis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Biology
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Muhammad Ghazali
Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
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Styliani Minoudi
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Biology
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David Parish
Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
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Evaggelos Chatzinikos
4th Hunting Federation of Sterea Hellas
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Dimitrios Kiousis
4th Hunting Federation of Sterea Hellas
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Nikolaos Manios
Forestry Authority of Trikala
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Jenny Dunn
Keele University School of Life Sciences
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Alexandros Triantafyllidis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Biology
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Abstract

The grey partridge population has experienced significant declines across Europe, largely due to agricultural intensification and loss of habitat, leading to conservation actions such as Red-listing in the UK and hunting bans in Greece. The genetics of Balkan and Scottish populations remain largely unexplored; genetic analyses are essential to evaluate the impact of past restocking efforts on wild populations, as breeding between released and wild-living partridges may complicate recovery efforts. In this study, we sample wild and farmed individuals of grey partridge from the Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia) and the United Kingdom (UK) and employ 2300 SNPs, eight microsatellites and two mitochondrial markers to investigate the genetic structure and diversity of their populations and the impact of past restocking activities. We reveal a clear distinction between two clades, an Eastern and a Western, as in previous studies, with wild birds from Greece and the UK classified to each clade respectively. However, birds from North Macedonia belonged to either clade, suggesting a contact zone between the two or a genetic legacy of past restocking practices. The captive stock in Greece and the UK is clearly of Western origin, with minor introgression of the Eastern clade being detected. Finally, an informative SNP marker panel is presented that accurately assigns each individual to either the Eastern or Western clade and will serve as a valuable tool for monitoring population structure, guiding conservation efforts, and assessing the impact of restocking activities on grey partridge populations.