Large carnivores often come into conflict with humans, primarily due to the predation of domestic animals. There are many techniques and preventive measures to protect livestock from attacks by wolves and other predators. However, when these measures are insufficient, most European countries offer financial compensation for damage caused by protected animal species. Therefore, reliable methods for identifying the true cause of damage are very important, also to deter false claims. A field inspection is the first step, but with similar animal species, such as dogs, wolves, and jackals, mistakes can easily occur. Molecular analyses are more reliable, and if the sample is of good quality, nuclear DNA analysis can identify not only the species but also the individual. The problem arises with older samples, where the DNA is already significantly degraded. In this study, we demonstrated that mitochondrial DNA analysis is more successful in determining the species of animal from non-invasively collected saliva samples from the wounds of killed animals. We successfully identified 91% of samples using mtDNA, while nuclear DNA was successful in only 50% of cases. By analyzing reference samples, we can also build our internal database, which is crucial for identifying mitochondrial haplotypes present in our area. In our research, we identified 6 wolf and 16 dog haplotypes. The database must be constantly updated with new samples from neighboring populations as well. Haplotyping can help avoid potential ambiguities in distinguishing between wolf and dog samples when using mtDNA, as in our study, dog and wolf haplotypes did not overlap.
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